Threefold Path
by WhereOneAuthorFails
Summary: Nearly all of Indra's decedents awakened at least the base form of his bloodline. Meanwhile, most of Ashura's decedents did not progress past the passive benefits of his bloodline. Most. Naruto that stays in character and isn't suddenly a polite genius.
1. Glimpse of His Potential

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**Edit: The first few chapters seem fractured as I try to skip past what everyone has already read a few dozen times. By the start of Chunin Exams, Ch 8, the writing style will be smooth. **

* * *

Naruto cheered silently as he watched the Sandaime rocket back from a Oiroke induced nosebleed. With a puff a smoke, the whisker scarred busty beauty reverted to his base form of a 4'9" boy with sun-kissed hair and azure eyes. Coming down from his high of "defeating" the hokage, he looked to see where his jiji had landed. Looking over at the wall upon which Sarutobi had landed, Naruto saw him laying haphazardly on the ground.

'That's gonna leave him sore when he wakes up' Naruto realized as he saw the awkward angles at which his jiji's limbs had bent upon landing. Looking at the door through which he would have to leave before the ANBU arrived, Naruto debated whether or not to leave his surrogate grandfather to wake up on the ground and get out quickly or to take the time to make sure that he was comfy.

Naruto looked at the door once more and sighed before putting down the large scroll that had been his goal and walking over to the old man lying on the ground. It took some effort to keep from hurting his grandfather further, but after 10 minutes of careful arranging, Sarutobi was sitting in the hokage chair with his head lying on crossed arms on his desk. With a final check to make sure that nothing looked out of place, Naruto picked up the Scroll of Sealing and walked out the door, making sure to keep his steps silent and to avoid the purpose built creaking floorboards.

As he heard the door shut and Naruto inaudible, to those under Jonin, steps recede, a small smile lit the Sandaime's face. Sitting up, he nodded and the team of ANBU that had been stationed to protect him that night dropped down silently from the ceiling, releasing the Kakuremino* Jutsu they had been using.

"Follow Naruto and find the traitor or traitors. Do not harm Naruto and don't interfere unless he is truly in danger of death." The Sandaime ordered. With a small nod, two of the ANBU vanished to follow Naruto. "Inform the Jonin and Chunnin that Naruto has stolen the Scroll of Sealing. Make sure that you tell them in no uncertain terms that this is retrieval only. Any harm caused to Naruto post his acquiescence is prohibited." With a nod, another ANBU left to carry out the message. "Inform the ANBU commander what happened. Tell him to use this opportunity to bait any traitors." With a nod, the fourth ANBU left. Turning to the remaining four ANBU, Sarutobi gave his final orders. "Prepare to use the Hiraishin to get Naruto to safety if the need arises" With a nod, they prepared themselves to flash to the marker on Naruto at an instant's notice.

* * *

At a clearing in the forests surrounding Konoha, Naruto panted as he set down the large scroll he had been carrying. Even though he had only left ten minutes later than he would have if he hadn't helped the Hokage, it had caused him to lose nearly half and hour in leaving the building as he had nearly walked into an ANBU patrol and had to wait till they were far enough away that they wouldn't notice the chakra he would be pumping to his limbs to get out Konoha. By the time it was safe to leave, he had to take a longer route than he had planned to make sure that he avoided the patrol routes. All-in-all, It had taken him nearly three hours longer than he had planned to get out of the village without being noticed, as far as he knew at least.

Finally catching his breath, Naruto sat down and opened up the scroll to find a technique to learn so that he could pass. He was halfway through reading the instructions on how to use the Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu when he heard a rustle from the leaves. Turning quickly, he saw Iruka arrive in the clearing.

* * *

Naruto sat behind the tree as he listened to Mizuki and Iruka talk. "If you use the skills in that scroll, you can do whatever you want" Mizuki tried explaining to Iruka," There's no way the demon fox wouldn't try to use that power. Unlike what you're assuming."

There was silence and as Iruka breathed heavily, his wounds weighing him down."Yeah…" Iruka started." The demon fox would do that, but Naruto is different. He is someone I've acknowledged as one of my excellent students. He isn't a demon fox anymore, he is a member of the hidden leaf. He is Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto cried as he heard Iruka speak. First in pain as he heard Iruka's condemnation, but then in joy as he heard Iruka's acknowledgement. 'He see's me. I'm not just the demon brat to him. He acknowledges Naruto Uzumaki."

'Feh," Mizuki scoffed as he reached behind him for his Fuma Shuriken," if that's the way you're going to be, then DI-urk" As Mizuki was about to release the instrument of Iruka's death, Naruto leapt from behind the tree and kneed him in the face, causing him to miss. Jumping back, he placed himself between Iruka and the would be murderer.

Standing up, Mikuki rubbed his face as he glared at Naruto. " I was going to take my time with you, but now I'll just kill you and Iruka in one shot!" Mizuki gloated as he ran towards the other pair, kunai out and ready to end their lives.

Naruto stood watching as Mizuki got closer. He had managed to stop Mizuki the first time by surprise, but now he had nothing. His brawling style of taijutsu might let him put up somewhat of a fight against other Academy students, but it would be nothing against a chunnin. He had no ninjutsu he could use against Mizuki other than the Academy basics, as he hadn't had enough time to learn one from the scroll. He had nothing. By all rights, he should be running. But if he ran, then Mizuki would kill Iruka. He couldn't allow that.

Iruka who had eaten with Naruto when he was feeling down.

He had to save him.

Naruto's breath hitched and then relaxed into a deeper breathing cycle.

Iruka who had known where to find Naruto because he knew Naruto.

He had to save him

The tension in the air began to shift as Killing Intent started to pour from Naruto. Behind him, the already taxed Iruka passed out as it became too much for him to handle.

Iruka who acknowledged him. Not as the demon brat or the fox, but as Naruto.

He had to save him.

Chakra began to roll off Naruto. Gold, blue, and red danced across his skin before it dissipated into the air.

Iruka who was now nearly dead thanks to Mizuki. Mizuki who had baited Naruto into stealing the Scroll. Mizuki who had tried to have Naruto labeled as a traitor. Mizuki who had tried to kill Naruto, Mizuki who had tried to kill Iruka. Mizuki who had tried to kill the one who acknowledged him.

**HE HAD TO KILL HIM.**

* * *

Naruto groaned as he swam back to consciousness thanks to the lights overhead bearing down on him.

"Careful Naruto," he heard Iruka say from the couch he lay on to his right. IRUKA! Naruto jumped off the couch he was laying on before he nearly collapsed from lightheadedness. Steadying himself, Naruto made his way over to the bandaged man and kneeled beside him.

"Iruka-sensei are you alright? Did they bandage you up alright? Im really sorry for stealing the scroll. I really didn't know Mizuki was a traitor. I thought-" Naruto rambled until Iruka held a hand up to stop him.

"It's alright Naruto, it wasn't your fault. All you did was beleive in a teacher. All the fault lies with Mizuki." comforted Iruka, smiling at his frazzled student. Naruto relaxed at Iruka's words and a comfortable silence settled in.

A minute later, Iruka propped himself up on his elbows and scooted back to lean against the armrest of the couch."Close your eyes for me Naruto." Iruka asked, hands already moving towards the back of his head. He took of his protector and laid it across his lap. Pushing Naruto's goggles down to rest around his neck, Iruka took his hitae-ate and tied it around Naruto's forehead.

Feeling the cloth rest against his forehead, Naruto opened his eyes and reached up to touch his new accessory. As he realized the significance of Iruka's actions, his eyes widened and he looked towards his mentor for confirmation.

Smiling, Iruka nodded and laid back down, pretending to ignore the sniffles coming from a quietly sobbing Naruto. "You deserve this. The Will of Fire what makes a Konoha ninja strong. More so than Nin, Tai, or Genjutsu. And you have that in spades."

Naruto slowly brought himself back under control and was about to thank Iruka when he noticed that Iruka had fallen asleep. Smiling a true smile, Naruto laid his head down on the sofa and began to fall asleep.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled as he watched his surrogate grandson fall asleep next to the his Academy Instructor. Slowly closing the door, The Hokage turned around and made his way down the hall back to his office.

Sitting down in his seat, he nodded for the ANBU commander to present his report.

"We had 4 confirmed traitors come out of the woodwork. 1 D-clearance gennin, 2 C-clearance chunin, and 1 B-clearance chunnin. All them were apprehended with minimal injuries sustained and have been handed over to I&amp;T for further processing. Mizuki was brought in but it was too late to save him from his wounds. The two ANBU that were sent to tail Uzumaki-san both reported in with Mild Injuries following their attempt to subdue the raging form of Uzumaki-san." The Commander noted.

Slowly packing his pipe and then lighting it, the Sandaime listened to the report. "And what has analysis revealed of Naruto's performance?" he asked, blowing slowly expanding rings out his mouth.

"Analysis has revealed large concentrations of the Kyuubi's chakra interspersed with Uzumaki-san's natural chakra and a third unknown form of chakra. On his body, we found that that the tip of his left pinky had calcified. Upon sampling, it was determined to be of the same composition as stone on turns into when senjutsu is used improperly leading to the belief that the third form of chakra found was Nature Chakra.", the Commander responded dutifully.

Sarutobi nodded,signalling the Commander to leave, and mulled over the provided information. The original plan had been to introduce Naruto to Jiraiya during the Month long intermission before the third phase of the Chunnin exams when he would be there up increase security. Seeing as things had changed drastically, he realized the plans to introduce the two would have to follow suit.

Reaching down, he grabbed a scroll from a hidden drawer and placed it on the table. Releasing it with a drop of blood, he placed his hand on the seal and poured chakra into it, creating a puff of smoke. As the smoke dissipated, a red frog with the kanji for kin on his back was revealed to be sitting on the scroll.

"My name is Kosuke the Messenger Frog" the now named frog spoke. "How can I help you Hokage-sama?"

" I need you send a message to Jiraiya as soon as possible. Tell him that Naruto has awakened something unknown and that he is to execute an A-Class return home."

With a final check so make sure that the Hokage had said all that need to say, the messenger frog nodded to the man and returned to the summon realm in a small column of white.

Leaning back, he continued to puff his pipe as he looked out the window and watched over his sleeping village.

" And now we wait."

* * *

Kakuremino* Jutsu = Cloak of Invisibility Technique

A-Class return home - Abandon Mission Parameters and return home as soon as possible without blowing cover.


	2. Just call me Naruto

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

Jiraya pondered what to do as he stood washing his hair. He had received Sarutobi's A-Class return order last night. Normally he'd have been able to return quite quickly as the toads were great at getting him in and out of where he needed to be but his current predicament didn't allow such action.

The toad sage was currently passing himself off as part of a traveling merchant caravan so as to infiltrate Iwa. Had the summons reached him a week ago, he could have passed off his disappearance as a wild animal attack and quickly snuck back to Konoha. That line of action was currently not possible as they were within a day's travel of Iwa, meaning that any dangerous animals were contained to an area far from merchant routes, and any attempt to abscond from the merchants would be noted as the caravan entered Iwa one person less than what records taken by Earth Country border patrols indicated. As it was, he would need to stay with the caravan at least until they left Iwa and were far enough such that leaving the caravan could be passed off as Jiraiya voyaging to one of the minor villages.

'What to do" mused Jiraya, rinsing his hair and heading back to shore to dry off from his bath in the river. he was tempted to blow his cover following the first part of the message. Anything unknown to The Professor was clearly something he should be worried about. Especially since he saw fit to leave the details out of a secure line of communication. The second line of the message was the only reason he didnt. Had the issue been malignant, the order would have been a S-Class return home directive, meaning he would be permitted to break cover in order to be as timely as possible. Tempted as he was, Jiraiya knew that it would be best to follow the Sandaime's orders as he had more information than Jiraiya and had always been better and weighing the pro's and con's of a action. That was, after all, the reason he had risen to be the second God of Shinobi and still stayed as such despite others like Minato.

'Well it looks like the gaki's gonna have to hold on just a bit longer.' Jiraiya thought as he made his back to the caravan before heading to where the women were bathing.

* * *

Naruto lay on his back looking at the blue sky while kicking his legs back and forth in the air, bored out of his mind.

"ARGH!" he shouted flailing his arms and legs comically before letting them collapse limply back on the ground."When is sensei gonna get here. He's already two hours late!"

"Shut up Naruto-baka! We already know sensei's late! We don't need you yelling that!" A pink haired banshee yelled back. glaring at the orange covered offender before going back to making doe eyes at a black haired boy sitting at the base of a tree.

Naruto tried to compress into the ground as Sakura yelled at him before glaring at Sasuke.

"Ne, Sakura-chan wanna go get some food after the test?" Naruto asked, getting up and walking towards Sakura as his stomach prompted the question.

Sakura's stomach growled as her mind processed the question. Blushing and angry at Naruto for causing her stomach to growl, in front of her beloved Sasuke-kun, as well as for reminding her that she was in fact very hungry, she clobbered him over the head and send him crashing into the ground. "Baka, who would want to go somewhere with you?" she stated, standing over a smarting Naruto. " Besides, I'm going with Sasuke-kun. Isn't that right?" Sakura turned and nearly begged Sasuke, hoping for a positive response. In return Sasuke completely ignored her. Not even deigning to reply.

Now with two of its members wallowing in despair, at being rejected, while the third was lost in his own thoughts, Team Seven lapsed into silence.

It wasn't until a little past ten that Kakashi showed up, chill as you please.

"Good morning" he said cheerfully, as if he hadn't been over three hours late.

"YOU'RE LATE!" was the indignant response from 2 of his 3 gennin.

* * *

"Come at you with intent to kill?" scoffed Naruto in response to his sensei's instruction to do so. "You couldn't even dodge my eraser prank. If we actually come at you with the intention to kill, you'll die".

"Sometimes the dogs with the biggest bark have the smallest bite" was Kakashi's lazy response, his posture and facial expression indicating that Naruto's words hadn't fazed him at all. "Isn't that right dead last?"

Dead last.

Internally Naruto wilted. Here was another person who didn't acknowledge him. It wasn't so much that Kakashi had said that Naruto was bad. It was more that he had identified him as dead last and not Naruto. Just like how the villagers saw him as the demon brat, Kakashi saw him as the dead last of the class and nothing more.

'Fine then", Naruto hardened himself. "If sensei won't acknowledge me, then I'll make him." Naruto grabbed a kunai from his holster leaned forward, about to charge his sensei and show him that there was more to him than Kakashi thought.

Just as he was about to push off, Kakashi disappeared and reappeared behind him, kunai to the base of his neck.

Naruto froze and then smiled. Kakashi may have stopped him before he began but at least he had used Jonin level speed and hadn't dismissed him. It was a step in the right direction.

"Calm down, I haven't even said start yet. At least it seems like you'll be coming at me with the intent to kill." Kakashi said with an eye smile while stepping back from Naruto. "Well it seems I might like you after all. Ready? GO!"

Naruto jumped away from Kakashi, watching as his teammates did the same. He contemplated hiding the woods as the other two were doing before shooting it down.

'No,' Naruto decided, taking an aggressive stance 30 feet from Kakashi,'if I want him to see me as more than just the dead last then I'm going to have to show him what I can do.'

"The basics of a Ninja is to hide oneself," Kakashi began, turning to face Naruto."You're doing it wrong..."

Naruto nearly snorted. He'd escaped from chunnin on a nearly weekly basis, If he wanted to, he was sure he could hide from Kakashi. Instead, he dashed towards him and prepared to engage Kakashi in a Taijutsu fight. Hesitating for a moment when Kakashi reached for his hip pocket, he doubled his speed when he saw that Kakashi had deigned it safe to read while facing an angry Naruto.

And he was right. No matter what Naruto did, Kakashi was able to flawlessly intercept him without looking up. What's worse was he was almost definitely actually reading the book, as his giggling at its content would attest to. Rage peaking, Naruto made a wild swing only to find nothing in front of him.

"You really shouldn't let your enemy get behind you," he heard Kakashi say from behind him. He froze for a second before he felt himself flying through the air, his mind not even letting him feel the pain the he should have been feeling as he splashed into the nearby pond.

'Dammit,' Naruto thought sinking to the bottom on the pond.'He's not even taking me serious!'

His mind flashed back to all the people who'd cast aside his existence. Now was the time he would have loved to start using some new and powerful jutsu, but, just like with Mizuki, he had nothing. Thinking back to that fight, he remembered the first part of the instructions for the Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

* * *

Kakashi watched from the shore as he waited for Naruto to surface or try something. He was about to leave to deal with the other two genin when he felt the absolutely enormous amount of chakra being channeled beneath the surface of the water. Kakashi braced himself as he felt whatever technique Naruto was about to perform near it's completion. For a moment the world stood still as even the birds and bugs quieted down. In the next moment it seemed like nearly all the water in the lake exploded and rushed towards Kakashi like a miniature Suiton: Bakusui Shōha.(Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave) Quickly executing an emergency shunshin to a tree branch, Kakashi steadied himself and turned back towards the pond with a raised eyebrow.

* * *

Naruto panted at the sudden decrease in chakra running through his body. The first step of the Taju Kage Bunshin technique had called for pushing as much Chakra as the user could into their chakra circulatory system. Not knowing what to do following that, Naruto had chosen to continue pumping chakra until his pathways had started to burn. Naruto held on the the massive amount of chakra he had been channeling until he felt like it was about to slip out of his grasp. With a final push, he released what he had been channelling and hoped for the technique to work. What had happened instead was that his chakra had exploded outwards from him, taking the water around him with it to leave the pond near empty.

Climbing back on shore, Naruto finally caught his breath and looked around for Kakashi. He didn't see his sensei anywhere, but what he did see was a marshy training field, a glint of metal, and the rest of the pond falling from the sky in the form of rain. Registering the second thing in his mind, Naruto looked closer at the glint of metal to see one of Kakashi's bells on the ground near a tree. With an woot of joy, Naruto ran towards it and was about to pick it up when he felt the rope tighten around his ankle.

"Dammit!", Naruto shouted, swinging from the snare trap.

* * *

Naruto groused as the hung from the tree. Kakashi had left to take a look at the other two member of his team. Once he was sure that his sensei had left he had cut himself down from the tree only to get caught by the second snare that Kakashi had laid. Only this time, Kakashi had seen fit to make sure that his arms were trapped too; attached to ropes that were pinned to the ground*.

'And just after I had pulled of my cool new jutsu too,' Naruto complained. He had thought about doing it again, but he afraid the tree would go flying, thereby ripping him in half as his hands were still attached to the ground via the ropes. If only he could have the technique focus on the ropes without effecting the tree.

Wait a second.

Naruto closed his eyes and tried to see if he could have his chakra gather just below his wrists. Naruto focused and concentrated as hard as he could but he couldn't restrict the large amounts of chakra to his hands, let alone his wrists. The best he could do was keep the intensity focused in his arms. Pushing until he could feel the lines of pressure running down his arms, Naruto released his unnamed technique and watched as the ropes snapped as they were pushed away, and two overlapping craters form in the somewhat soft ground. Smiling at his success, Naruto bent up and cut himself down. Landing softly and leaving negligible prints in the soft ground.

Naruto smiled, 'back in business baby,' he thought to himself. Naruto turned and looked towards the bulging pack he had brought with him before the test had started,'and I'm gonna show Kakashi-sensei what I can really do!'

* * *

Kakashi walked back toward the tree Naruto was still strung up from. Compared to the massive jutsu Naruto had released, Sasuke's Great Fireball was hardly surprising, but the technique had prompted Kakashi to go check on what the Number One Most Surprising Ninja was up to.

He felt disappointed seeing Naruto still hanging from the tree with his back to Kakashi's approach. As he was about to lay a hand on Naruto to turn him around, Kakashi noticed the snare trap he had stepped in and jumped back,before it caught him, with a smile, enjoying the irony. As his back foot landed, he felt something snap around it and he looked down to see the dulled bear trap that had closed around his right foot. Eyes wide, he reached down to release the trap before he felt the eruption of chakra to his left.

Naruto felt giddy as he rocketed forward towards the stuck Kakashi, his left sandal left behind near the cratered tree he had used as a starting block for his new unnamed technique that was the cause his new, heightened speed. He saw Kakashi begin to turn, so as to keep Naruto from gaining the bells, before he brought down his right foot, cratering the ground beneath it and leaving behind another sandal, and rocketed forward and past Kakashi with two bells in his hand.

Naruto had a moment to appreciate his victory before he tried to stop with his chakra abused legs and ended up tripping and skidding across the ground face first, bells still clutched in a death grip.

Kakashi stood dumbfounded at the gennin lying on the ground. He had never seen anyone actually get the bells during the test. It was supposed to be impossible for gennin to get the bells, the true test being what came afterwards.'Your son's quite amazing Minato-sensei.'

Naruto smiled as he got up on still weak legs."Well done Naruto," he heard Kakashi say as he looked up."You've become a fine Shinobi."

Naruto's smile only got bigger as one more person acknowledged him.

Hearing the alarm, Kakashi turned towards the clearing where he had left Sasuke buried."I think it's time we get your teammate ne?"

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura sat down next the posts as Naruto sat atop one.

"Two of your showings were quite mediocre", Kakashi started, lightly scowling at the three genning, "while only the third was quite good, seeing as he got both the bells."

Sakura looked at Sasuke, sure that he had gotten the bells, while Sasuke simply looked confused. It took them a moment, but they realized that there was another male on the team and looked up incredulously at Naruto smiling like an idiot and dangling two bells between his fingers.

"Yes, yes, well done Naruto," Kakashi called attention back to himself," but I said you only needed one bell to pass. So who are you going to give the second bell to?"

"Give it to me dobe," Sasuke started quickly before Naruto could respond." There is someone I need to kill, and I can't waste my time by going back to the academy."

Sakura stayed quiet while Sasuke talked before speaking up as well. "Y-yeah Naruto-baka," she said, her voice slowly gaining confidence."Give Sasuke-kun the other bell. He needs it more than I do."

Naruto stayed silent, looking at his extra bell and then looking at his two teammates; Sasuke's determined gaze, and Sakura's matching one, before he looked to see Kakashi's patient one. Looking down at his extra bell once more he sighed before making his decision.

"I'll give it to you on one condition," was Naruto's response.

"What?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

Kakashi stayed silent, curious to see what Naruto's demand would be.

Sakura started to get angry. 'That baka! He's probably going to make Sasuke-kun beg on his knees or give him a lot of money or -'

Sakura's train of thought was ended as she caught the bell that was thrown her way. Looking to her right, she was able to see that Sasuke had received one as well. Now thoroughly confused, she looked at her third teammate for an answer.

His hands were behind his head and he had a wide smile on his face.

"Just call me Naruto." He said as he turned and walked away. Heading back towards Konoha Main.

The other two genin just stood there for a few seconds, watching their blonde teammate leave. As if struck by a bolt of lighting, they both ran after Naruto.

"Oi, Do-Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as he ran after his third teammate, Sakura a few steps behind him.

Back at the stumps, Kakashi watched as his team ran off.

"Well what do you know," Kakashi said to himself, once more burying his nose in and Icha Icha. "My first genin team."

* * *

**AN: Didn't think I'd have a second chapter up so soon now didja?**

**Special thanks to KHARAKI TAKAN for the inspiration for the last four lines.**

***= Kakashi is more cautious of Naruto following his exploding of the pond. Not wanting to risk another unknown jutsu, he makes provisions to keep Naruto from making hand signs.**

**Yes I realize that Naruto has yet to name his new technique. This is because both Naruto and I have yet to come up with one. So feel free to suggest some names and I'll probably choose the best one to debut next chapter. **


	3. A plan gone well A new goal found

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Naruto. But I don't**

**Hey guys. Sorry this is a day late but I had a final to take yesterday and couldn't spare the time to write this one out.**

**I'm a bit sad that only three people have reviewed this story but I guess that is to be expected since I'm a new author and this is a new story.**

**But still. Thank you Kronos96, thor94, Okiro Benihime for reviewing. Sorry I didn't use your suggestion Okiro but you'll see why as the name I gave connects into the story later on.**

**I'll try to stay on the one update per day schedule but no promises that there won't missed missed days between now and the end of next week when my finals end.**

**Enjoy the Latest Chapter!**

* * *

Naruto squinted, trying to see into the mist. Behind him sat Sasuke and Sakura (he liked to think that she was admiring how he was willing to keep a watch to protect her) while Kakashi-sensei sat a little farther behind with Tazuna, their client.

It had been a trying month and a half since officially becoming genin. Naruto had genuinely believed that they would be out liberating countries and saving princesses within the week, so when their first assignment had been to paint a fence, he had all but started a riot.

When they hadn't been taking missions, Kakashi had them sparring so as to increase their Taijutsu skills.

Naruto hated it.

While he may have been the one to grab the bells in the bell test, whenever he and Sasuke spared, he was reminded that he wasn't the best genin on the team. In their first spar, Naruto had released a Ninpo:Doki (Ninja Art : Beat), so named because the Inuzuka apparently heard a low thump whenever he performed it, as soon Sasuke had gotten in range. He'd managed to fling Sasuke into a tree but, by the time Naruto had recovered, Sasuke already had a kunai to his neck. Trying again with only his left arm had flung Sasuke back again without leaving Naruto a limp mess, but had also flung Naruto back as well and left his left arm completely useless for 10 seconds. Predictably, the end result of the second spar had also been a loss for Naruto.

Following his second defeat, Naruto had gone off to train his new technique. Hours of making craters in trees later, Naruto had come to a few conclusions about his technique. First, he confirmed that anytime he used the technique, it fatigued him and left him unable to use it again for a while. The amount of charka that Naruto had and the amount that the technique had release hadn't been the issue though. Instead, whenever Naruto used the technique, it caused localized weakness as his pathways emptied of charka. It apparently took time for them to refill, and because of that, Naruto found that he would have to wait anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds to reuse it in that limb, or 30 in the case of a full sized blast like he'd done with Kakashi at the pond.

When Kakashi had finally gotten around to dragging Naruto to the Hokage to explain his new technique and get it ranked, Naruto had gotten a stern lecture about fooling around with that much chakra before getting a small word of congratulation for his newly created jutsu. Following the grueling talk, Sarutobi had called for an ANBU who was proficient in medical justsu and shunshined with Naruto to a nearby training ground to discover more details about the technique. What they had learned was a mixed blessing. Naruto wasn't causing himself great harm by using the technique, though that was only because of the Kyuubi. Ninpo: Doki was labeled as a B-Rank kinjustu as if anyone,but another jinchuuriki used it more that twice in a day, they were liable to rupture their chakra pathways. Not to mention that using the technique on a single limb was equal to about 2 or 3 Kage Bunshin and the Full body version was about 3 times that of a Taju Kage Bunshin. It was also noted that the primary effects of the jutsu stopped about 5 feet from the point of release. The only reason that Naruto had displaced an entire lake during the bell test, was because the Doki had transferred the energy to the water while infusing it at the same time.

Both Kakashi and the Sandaime had asked that he learn and use the Kage Bunshin instead, but Naruto had stubbornly refused. "I'm gonna be awesome with my own jutsu" he had declared.

Still musing over just how he was going to accomplish that, Naruto missed the looming dark shapes in front of him. If it wasn't for a hit to the head from Sakura, he would have missed them entirely.

"Itai!" Naruto yell in pain.

"Shut up," the boatman hissed," or do you want Gato's men to find us?"

* * *

Naruto was scared. The missing nin they were facing had trapped Kakashi in a sphere of water and was now sending a Water clone to kill them. Naruto knew that he was no match for Zabuza. But he refused to run. He had already told himself back when he froze during the fight against the Demon Brothers, that he wouldn't freeze up again.

He looked down at the kunai he was holding and then back up at the Mizu Bunshin and Zabuza behind him. A plan began to form in his mind.

"Sasuke, Sakura." he called back at to his other teammates." I got a plan."

* * *

After a moment of planning, and large puff of smoke, Sasuke, followed by two Narutos, came running towards the Mizu Bunshin. The Demon of the Mist watched as the two genin engaged his clone, gauging their skills and noting that the girl was still guarding the bridge builder.

The black haired boy quite good: speedy and precise with his blows, he probably would match his tool given another half a year to train. A half a year that he wouldn't be getting when Zabuza killed him. The blonde, on the other hand, didn't worry him at all. His taijutsu was lackluster and he had yet to show off any other skills excluding his single clone, which had long been dispelled with a negligent swing. It would have been childs play for the real Zabuza to take out both of the two genin, but, having only 1/10 of the skill and much less durability, the Mizu bunshin popped when it took a shuriken to the knee.

Readying his blade in his left hand, Zabuza prepared for their arrival, the Uchiha in front and the eyesore behind him. Zabuza brought his arm up to block the kick of the first one and used his wrist to deflect the shuriken the second had thrown back at him with a smirk. The smirk fell when the projectile grazed the blonde brat and he transformed into a pink haired she with another puff of smoke. He looked back to the bridge builder and saw the second pink haired girl with the same grin that he had seen on the blonde brat before Zabuza had ambushed them.

* * *

It had worked. Naruto felt like jumping for joy, but now wasn't the time.

The plan had been for Sakura to transform into Naruto while tweaking the control a bit so extra smoke was produced. Then, within the cover of the smoke, she was to create a bunshin that looked like Naruto. Meanwhile, Naruto would transform into Sakura and hope that Zabuza thought all the smoke was simply the result of a poorly executed Bunshin. Naruto would then take Sakura's place and she would head out with Sasuke, hanging back a bit as her Taijutsu wasn't on the level of Naruto's let alone the Avenger's.

While the other two engaged the MIzu Bunshin and kept Zabuza's attention focused on them, Naruto began to visualize trajectories. He would only get a single shot at this so he couldn't miss. As the Mizu Bunshin popped, Naruto took the kunai and placed it so that his fingers were folded across his palm and the kunai was perpendicular to his palm, and aimed at Zabuza. A few seconds later, Sasuke occupied Zabuza's free arm and Sakura had occupied his hand and sword. With a loosening of his fingers, and an internal declaration of Ninpo:Doku followed by a violent release of charka, the kunai shot forward, much faster than he had ever been able to throw one, towards Zabuza.

The Demon of the Mist saw the kunai coming, headed straight for his left arm, and cursed as he realized he'd been had. Having mainly dealt with Hunter Nin for the past few years, He had been on the lookout for strategies that would lead to his death or severe injury. The gennin's plan to get him to move his arm and release Kakashi had completely bypassed him. He could still get away without injury, but he would have to dodge instead of block the kunai as he wouldn't be able to move his arm or sword into position to block fast enough. He could of course take the hit, but at the speed the kunai was traveling at, and with the chakra he could see infusing it, it would punch straight through his arm and he would end up releasing Kakashi anyway.

Jumping back he watched as his Water Prison fell and Kakashi got into position.

"Very good job team." the wet grey haired man praised." Now go back and defend the client while I take care of the rest."

* * *

"Ninpo:DOKI!" Naruto yelled fuming as he punched the tree again, finally punishing it enough that it started to fall, tearing at the branches of the trees surrounding it as if trying to stay upright. He panted, arms limp by his sides from pathway depletion.

How dare he.

How dare Inari claim that he had never know misery. What did the brat know about misery anyway. He had a mother feed him and love him and hug him. He had a grandfather who was willing die trying to make Inari's life better. Where as Inari knew his family, Naruto didn't even know if his parent had truly died or had just given him up (despite how much the Hokage reassured him, the looks of the villagers always left doubts in his head). Naruto barely had anyone that would acknowledge him, let alone take care of him.

Heck Naruto could count how many people even acknowledged him on one hand. There was jiji, and Ayume, and Teuchi...and Iruka and Kakashi, and Sakura, and Sasuke.

Naruto's thoughts halted, his anger calming. That was seven. He only had five fingers on his hand. Naruto hadn't thought he'd ever have seven people acknowledge him. Sure he knew they'd respect him after he became hokage, but that would be because he was the strongest ninja in the village.

A new thought wormed into the blonde genin's head : he didn't need to wait till he became hokage. Iruka, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke proved that he could get people to acknowledge him well before that.

Naruto sat down on the newly created stump looking up at the sky. The sky shone a light blue above him, a wide stretch easily visible in the newly created clearing. For a while he just sat there, enjoying life until he heard a rustle to his right and turned to see a beautiful girl wearing a kimono walk into the clearing.

* * *

Naruto trudged back into the house, tired and with his head down, thinking deeply about his conversion with Haku. He mentally gagged for a moment as he remembered how he thought the feminine boy had been such a pretty girl.

Returning to his former thoughts, he thought about his precious people. Jiji, Ayame, Iruka, Teuchi, and Sakurai were definitely up there. Thinking about it a bit more, he tentatively added Kakashi, and Sasuke to the list as well.

Could he really get strong enough to protect his precious people? He knew for sure that he was stronger than Sakura, Ayame, and Teuchi, and promised to always be there when they needed him. But what about Jiji, Iruka, and Kakashi? They were already so much stronger than him. what could hurt them.

He froze.

What if there were people stronger than the hokage that came to hurt them?

No!

He couldn't allow that. He vouched that he would get stronger that any enemy. He needed to do it quickly before anyone could hurt his precious people.

But how?

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his sensei's hand on his shoulder."Got a lot on your mind Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Ah...Yeah" Naruto blushed. He'd been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed the presence in the living room.

Kakashi smiled at his student. "Come with me," he said, dragging Naruto into the living room."I want to you to meet someone."

Kakashi pulled him in through the doorway and stepped aside.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked a little rudely, the lack of sleep starting to get to him. He hadn't slept since he'd left the house following his argument with Inari, and after using Doki dozens of times, he was finally starting to feel the fatigue affect him.

"I am Myouboku Mountain's Monk of the Toad Spirits." The man began to dance oddly.

"Also known as the Toad Hermit." He stopped in a weird pose, hands extended and one leg behind the other.

"Jiraya!"

* * *

**AN: Thanks for reading and I hope you leave reviews. If you ask me a question I promise that I'll respond and answer!**


	4. Just what was hidden?

**Disclaimer:Still don't own Naruto. DAMMIT!**

**Sorry about the late update, but finals. As it is, I wrote this as soon as I came home from one today and have been writing for the past 5 hours, mixed in with kitten videos on YouTube of course. **

**I'm also on the lookout for a beta, so please PM me if you want to be 'the one' for me (INSERT DRAMATIC LOVE SONG HERE).  
**

**Here's a shoutout to all those who have taken the time to review my stories: **Kronus96, thor94, Okiro Benihime, nono, Yomamma3, The Benevolent Scriber, and anarion87. YOU GUYS ROCK. ****

****Another shoutout to the 50 people who have followed this story. You guys are reason I was spending 5 hours making sure that this chapter and every chapter that will follow it meshed in well. ****

**Enjoy the story guys. **

* * *

TWO DAYS AGO

Sarutobi sighed as finished up another document. Looking up to see the pile of documents that still remained, he felt like slamming his face into the desk repeatedly. He cursed the Nidaime for coming up with the torturous process but knew it was necessary.

To most other kage, the idea of doing piles upon piles of paperwork was laughable, but that was one of the reasons it was necessary. The thousands of bureaucratic papers held snippets of spy reports within them that allowed the hokage to have a continuous picture of what was happening within his land. These reports were updated as they happened and so they allowed him to see patterns as they emerged. This was one of the reasons that he couldn't use shadow clones to do the work for him as they wouldn't be able to see the patterns in time as they would each only be seeing a portion of what was happening. The reports were safer than just having a separate department handle the reports and send him a cohesive document as with the current method, the documents would only be useful if they were all read and taken into account, so a spy stealing a paper or two wouldn't glean them any useable information, while taking any more would be noticed and tip the hokage off that it had been compromised.

Speaking of being tipped off-

"Come in Jiraya," the Sandaime said, happy for the distraction.

Sliding the window up, the white haired man squeezed himself in. " What gave me off this time?" Jiraiya asked, easing himself into a chair. "I was sure I completely suppressed my chakra."

"You're right," the Professor started, with a small smile tugging at his lips." your chaka was completely suppressed, but the ANBU on the opposite roof saw you and signaled me."

Jiraiya facepalmed at his stupidity and then laughed."So what exactly happened that required a A-Class return directive? Especially since you knew I was in Iwa at the time." Jiraiya prompted, wanting to find out why he was here.

"Nearly two months ago", the old man started, "following his third attempt and failure at the genin exams, Naruto was approached by one of his Chunnin Instructors, a man by the name of Mizuki. That night, Naruto snuck into my office and proceeded to steal, what he thought, was the Scroll of Seals. I allowed him to think he knocked me out when I confronted him, and then proceeded to have the ANBU pry out some spies or traitors during the ruckus. I had sent a pair of ANBU to trail Naruto. His other Academy Instructor eventually found Naruto, and, when he realized that the boy had been tricked, protected him. The ANBU were on standby, ready to intercept Mizuki before any lasting harm was done before it all went to hell. The sight of one of the few people who acknowledged him seemed to send Naruto into a pit of rage and apparently awakened something in him."

"The Kyuubi?" Jiraiya asked, wondering if the seal had already started loosening,

"Not entirely. While reports do indicate traces of chakra that match samples taken post it's attack, the Kyuubi's chakra seemed to be on a different wavelength than before, possibly due to running through Naruto's coils, but what was truly unexpected was that along with the Kyuubi's chakra and his own, Naruto had been releasing a third type. Senjutsu."

Jiraiya sucked in a breath at that. Senjutsu was an extremely powerful but extremely dangerous source of energy. If the brat was already using it, then he would have to be trained sooner rather than later. Jiraiya would rather avoid that. Most kids around Naruto's age, especially Naruto, had trouble sitting still for any period of time, so trying to teach him how to utilize a technique which required complete immobility, would most likely result in Naruto failing and turning into a statue.

"Where is he right now?" Jiraiya asked, in a hurry to prove both himself and his sensei wrong. It would truly be disastrous if it was Senjutsu and Naruto didn't have to patience to properly learn it. .

"They should be in Wave country right now." Hiruzen responded, taking a drag on his pipe. "They just got their first C-Rank and should be there for the next month or so."

Jiraiya took a moment to think about what to do. He had heard some rumors about a new so called Hidden Sound Village that had sprung up in Land of Rice. Jiraiya felt uncomfortable with the fact that such a new village already had genin that they thought were ready to send to the chunnin exams, and wanted to check them out before the international event began. Seeing as it would take upwards of month to infiltrate the Village, Jiraiya decided that he couldn't wait for Naruto's team to get back, so he would have to go meet them in Wave, give Naruto a little check up, and then hightail it to Sound to find out as much as he could.

"Then I'm heading out." Jiraiya announced heading towards the window. Before he could open it once more, the Sandaime threw a sealing tag that stuck to the sill and created a small barrier in front of Jiraiya's planned exit.

"The door baka."

Jiraiya complied with the Sandaime's orders, amused that the God of Shinobi had a pre-prepared sealing tag to block off Jiraiya from exiting through the window.

* * *

NOW

It was nearly 8 hours after Naruto had rudely asked Jiraiya his name, and they were now sitting in the clearing the young jinchuuriki had made earlier that day.

"Ano, Jiraiya-san. Why did you want me here again?", Naruto asked, sitting crosslegged in front of the Sennin.

Jiraiya took a moment to think about how to phrase his requests without tipping Naruto off to the existence of Senjutsu. It would do no good to tell him if he were unable to currently utilize it. Choosing to start with the seal, he decided that he would figure out where to go from there.

"What do you remember about your incident with Mizuki gaki?", Jiraiya asked, his voice much more serious then one would have thought.

Naruto scrunched up his face at being called 'gaki' but put it off for the moment, realizing that this was more important than his pride. "I remember that the traitor tricked me into stealing the Scroll, and when Iruka came to - " Naruto started before Jiraiya cut him off.

"I've already heard the official report. What I want to know is if you can remember what specifically happened during your fight with him." Jiraiya asked.

" I remember that he came at me and Iruka wanting to kill us, and that I won and-" Naruto froze. He scrunched up his face trying to remember the rest of the fight, coming up blank. " and...and...why can't I remember?" His voice now showing a touch of concern.

Jiraiya nodded. This was inline with what he was expecting. Most jinchuuriki couldn't remember what happened when they went into a rage. "When teams later investigated the site of your battle with him, they found large traces of the Kyuubi chakra."

Naruto froze. He'd used the Kyuubi's chakra. Was that why the Hokage had sent a Sannin out to find him (Kakashi had explained who Jiraiya was and just how strong he was to Naruto after his rude outburst)? Had the Sandaime decided that this would be the best place to put him down? In wave where nobody would get hurt when the Kyuubi was released? Asking those questions to Jiraiya, he saw as the older man's lips twitch before he burst out laughing.

"No gaki," Jiraiya said, his voice softer now as he came down from his laughing fit," sensei sent me here to check on the seal. We just wanted to make sure it hadn't loosened."

"Sensei?" Naruto asked, confused.

"You might know him," Jiraiya responded."He's old and usually sits behind a desk wearing a hat with the fire symbol on it."

Naruto took a moment to put the clues together, but ,when he did, he pointed a finger at Jiraiya and exclaimed "Jiji was your sensei?"

Jiraiya nodded before motioning for Naruto to stand up. "Take of your shirt gaki. I need to see the seal"

Naruto complied and slipped of his orange jacket and the shirt beneath, shivering in the damp air of Nami.

Jiraiya had him channel some chakra and examined the seal, deciding what to do. "The seal looks fine, it hasn't changed from when I saw it on your eighth birthday."

"My eighth birthday?" Naruto asked. "I don't remember seeing you on my eighth birthday."

"Sarutobi had you sedated before I checked up on it." Jiraiya explained. "I did leave you a present though. A nice little toad wallet."

Naruto pulled out Gama-chan so that Jiraiya could see it.

"That's the one." Jiraiya affirmed,"Now hold still, I'm gonna make some changes so that you don't accidentally pull out some of the Kyuubi's chakra"

Jiraiya took out his sealing tools and spent the next half hour placing a deadbolt seal across the Eight trigrams seal, making sure that he placed a 3 point lock to keep the seal from changing from it's current orientation. Finished with the changes, Jiraiya told Naruto to put his clothes back on and packed away his tools.

"I have just over 24 hours before I'm gonna be leaving to get some other business done. So before then I want to see if I can do a few more tests." Jiraiya bit his thumb before pouring tons of chakra into the summon. He'd already contacted his target before hand, asking for their help.

"Must you always summon us just before we have supper?" came the high pitched voice from within the smoke cloud. Naruto watched intently until the smoke cleared to show two elderly toads who proceeded to jump onto Jiraiya's shoulders.

"Gaki, meet the toad elders." introduced Jiraiya.

"A...Nice to meet you" he replied a bit meekly, unsure of how to process the two toads now sitting on Jiraiya's shoulders." My name is Naruto"

"They are the elders of the toad summoning contract that I hold. They're very old and wise so respect them." Jiraiya explained before being smacked on the head by what Naruto could only assume was the female toad.

"Who are you calling old", she chided before turning to Naruto."Don't you mind him Naru-chan. I'm Shima and the senile old thing on Jiraiya-chan's other shoulder is Fukasaku. Just call us Ma and Pa."

Naruto smiled at the kindly toads. Ma's friendly demeanor soothing him.

"Now Naruto, I need you to sit as still as you can. The next test i'm about to conduct requires you to be motionless. It might take a while, but you'll need to try not to fidget."

Naruto nodded in compliance and closed his eyes before lowering his breathing. Meanwhile. Shima and Fukasaku kept a wary eye out for any signs of senjutsu, ready to knock it out of him if necessary.

An hour later, Jiraiya called it quits, when there was no change, and allowed the two toads to spend some time talking to Naruto. He was relieved that Naruto wasn't instinctually absorbing Nature chakra, meaning that he be able to wait a few more years before teaching it to him.

As Jiraiya spent some time mulling over what to do now that it was confirmed that Naruto didn't need any training that he could provide. Just as he was about to call it a day and dispel the two elder toads, Shima came hopping up to him

"Jiraiya-chan, take out the summoning scroll. I want Naru-chan to become a summoner right now." Jiraiya raised his eyebrows. The plan had been to have Naruto gain the contract during or after his first chunnin exams, but seeing as it was one of the elders demanding that it happen right now, Jiraiya complied.

"Why now?" Jiraiya asked. truly curious as the matriarch of the toad summons took the scroll as he handed it over.

"He's alone Jiraiya-kun. He tries to hide it but I can see how alone he feels. Bunta's kid needs some friends as well and shouldn't be too chakra consuming to summon. The two will do each other some good." Ma answered and Jiraiya nodded, agreeing with her sentiments.

Pa stepped back to watch with Jiraiya as Ma went through the explanations with Naruto.

"Why me?" Naruto asked, just before he was about use his blood to sign his name on the scroll. Ma merely smiled and patted Naruto on the head. "Why not you Naru-chan? You're a good kid."

Naruto smiled at the affection and signed his name on the scroll. Copying the hand seal sequence Shima showed him Naruto felt really happy that he now had more people to acknowledge him.

"Good," Shima said as Naruto finally got the hand seals. "Now you need to spread some blood on the hand you signed the seal with and then pump pump chakra into that hand and then release it as you smack it on the ground. Different toads require different amounts of chakra, but for now just pump in as much as you" Naruto nodded, showing that he understood and bit his thumb to draw the required blood.

Jiraya sat back against the tree trunk as he prepared for Naruto to do his first summon. Ready for the tadpoles that were sure to follow. As they watched, Naruto completed his seals and got the chakra he would need to summon ready. He pulled his arm back and closed his eyes to concentrate. Jiraiya's eyes widened as he felt the huge amount of chakra that Naruto began to channel into his arm. Before anyone could say anything, Naruto slammed his hand down into the ground, and a large poof of smoke enveloped where Naruto had been sitting.

As the smoke cleared, Jiraiya could only stare, dumbfounded, while Fukasaku chuckled beside him.

"Much better then you did at first neh JIraiya-chan?" Fukasaku said, eyes gleaming in mirth at the older summoners incredulity.

Jiraiya could only nod as he witnessed Naruto standing atop Gama. Sure, it wasn't the Boss Summon, but Naruto had managed to summon a cart size toad with nothing but his own chakra. What was even more surprising was that Gama had been summoned in full battle regalia, meaning that Naruto was pushing the limit of the size range, having used almost enough to summon a toad the next step up. And this was all on his first try, leaving Jiraiya to pout about how another blonde idiot had surpassed him.

Shima meanwhile watched as Naruto introduced himself as the new toad summoner to the large amphibian. She had felt the chakra build up inside Naruto during the summoning but also noticed how his arm seemed to be hanging limply by his side as he talked to Gama. Wanting to find out what he had done, she jumped up on top of Gama and got Naruto's Attention.

"Naru-chan, what was it that you just did?" she asked while the boy sat crosslegged.

"Ah" Naruto rubbed the back of his head with now functional arm."I decided to try using a new technique I came up with, Ninpo:Doki to help with the summoning. I push a bunch of chakra into my arm and then let it go all at once. It hurts a bit when I use it, but I'm used to it now. Jiji said its cuz I overload my coils or something. He said that if anyone but a Jailor used it, then they'd probably not be able to use chakra anymore."

Shima pondered on that while Naruto went back to chatting with Gama. Overloading one's chakra should theoretically lead to a higher flow rate of chakra but it took much too long to heal from to be a viable way to train for most shinobi. If this was what was truly happening, then Naruto might have found a way to push himself to new heights.

"Naruto-chan, I want you to use your Doki technique for me please." Shima asked.

Naruto just shrugged and jumped of Gama. With a small grunt of exertion, Naruto brought the one armed Doki against the ground to create a small crater beneath him. The tree walking exercises their sensei had taught them had really helped Naruto by allowing him to use one armed Doki strikes without flying off. Meanwhile, Shima subtly shifted into a semi-sage mode so she could sense his chakra better. Once, the reduced 9-second recharge period had ended, she asked Naruto to fire off another one with the same hand.

Noting the changes, Shima's mouth opened slightly in wonder. The increase had been so miniscule that anyone but another sage concentrating on Naruto would have missed it, but it was there. There had been some along the lines of a .1% increase in Naruto's flowrate. By itself it wasn't much, but when tallied up, Naruto could double his flowrate about every 700 strikes. Despite the odds, Jiraiya had managed to find another summoner for the toads with a stupid high potential. Potential that she wasn't allow to go to waste.

"Jiraiya-chan," Ma said seriously,"dispel us and then resummon us with enough chakra to last us a day or two. You can then go do whatever you need to do while me and Pa will spend sometime with Naruto."

Jiraiya just kept gaping at Naruto, his mouth not having been shut since the brat had summoned Gama. Just what kind of potential did Naruto have for Ma to want to train him straight away?

* * *

Two days later, Naruto jumped from tree to tree, heading towards the bridge as quickly as he could. Kakashi had let Naruto sleep in following his two days of training with the toads and he woke up to the screams of Tsunami and the shouts of Inari. Naruto took out the thugs easily and then proceeded to head towards the bridge, hoping that two fake samurai didn't mean that Zabuza was attacking.

"Hold on guys," Naruto prayed," I'm coming."

* * *

**A/N:  
As you can tell, the writing has gotten a lot more descriptive as we have finally skipped over much of the setup and have gotten to where the story really starts to diverge. There will still be bits where I skip or have less-descriptive sections in the Chunnin Exams arc, but those will hopefully be few and far between.**

**Please Review, Favorite, and Follow!**


	5. Can't Lose, Can't Win

Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto. Still wish I did.

Sorry about the delay guys. but life. On the plus side, I now have medication for my recently diagnosed ADD so expect faster, longer updates. (This 4 am update has been brought to you by Adderall).

Like always read and review cuz those reviews help me a lot. Please don't think I won't pay attention to your review because I do. Every Good job gives me more motivation to write faster, and every time you guys question some part of the plot, I make sure I question it myself and make sure that I haven't fucked up and then respond to you guys. I write for you guys. I won't change my plot just because someone asked, but I will always try to make sure that my quality is up to the reader's expectations.

Post Edit: HOLY SHIT. MY FOLLOWERS JUST HIT 100 AS I WAS ABOUT TO POST THIS. THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO DEEM THIS STORY WORTH HAVING ON YOUR ALERT LIST!

Enjoy

* * *

Sasuke smirked as he watched the water clones fail following his blitz. He'd been miffed that Naruto had been the one who was the lynchpin in the last plan against Zabuza, but being able to take care of Zabuza's water clones right now had helped greatly with his pride.

"Well look at that," Zabuza said, uncaring that his clones had been destroyed."Looks like you have a rival for your speed."

"Well the Mizu Bunshin were just 1/10th as strong as the original" the ceramic masked nin beside Zabuza replied."

Zabuza smirked at that. His tool was one of the best. Speedy with a weapon that he could use with great efficiency. Combine that with his kekkei genkai, and he was unbeatable. At least to these gennin. "Why don't you show the brat how it's done."

The nin nodded sharply and then blurred towards the other genin. Sasuke received similar orders from Kakashi and the two rivals for speed, clashed in a furious display of taijutsu before locking kunai together.

"Looks like we're tied so far," Sasuke remarked.

His opponent didn't say anything before he brought up his other hand and proceeded to use one handed seals. Around the two, dozens of water needles formed. "Looks like I have the lead", the fake hunter nin said as he jumped back and watched as the needles crashed together. As mist from the needles dissipated though, he saw that Sasuke wasn't there.

"Nope, looks like I'm in the lead" the hunter nin heard before having to protect himself from being attacked from behind. After a quick burst of jabs and sweeps, the two jumped away from each other towards their respective superiors, Sasuke no worse for wear, but the hunter nin sporting a small wound in his side.

"Looks like we have the advantage in speed," Kakashi said nonchalantly. "I can't have you looking down on my cute little gennin. After all, One of them is the #1 rookie of Konoha, another is the smartest kunoichi of her generation, and the last is the most unpredictable ninja in Konoha."

Zabuza grit his teeth at hearing that. As it was, the fight with Kakashi would be a close one, so his tool would have to take care of the gennin by himself.

"We can't waste anymore time. Take the brat out." Zabuza ordered. Wanting the speedy brat out of the picture before the blond one got there.

The hunter nin nodded before forming a hand seal. All around Sasuke, water began to rise. Sasuke braced himself, not willing to try to touch the water rising in pillars around him for fear that he would get trapped like Kakashi was. He watched the enemy nin intently, ready to take him on. Just as the pillars started to form rectangular surfaces that began to ice over, he felt something plow into him and send him crashing into one of the almost formed ice sheets. The current layer of ice being thin enough to allow him to pass through it and come out rolling on the other side. Getting his bearings he looked up to see what had ran into him, only to find the answer less than pleasing and grit his teeth. Naruto.

"Heroes always arrive late," Naruto declared cockily, not realizing he was now in the trap instead of Sasuke.

Regaining his composure, the hunter nin poured more chakra into the technique and completed his technique, a dome of mirrors now surrounding the less cocky Naruto. Sasuke tried to get back into the fight by jumping between the gaps in the mirrors but was rebuffed by a accurate shower of senbon and was forced to jump back from the dome.

"In another time and place, I might have chosen to fight you both at once," the hunter nin declared, merging into a mirror, much to the surprise of Naruto. "But I no longer have that luxury, so please wait your turn."

Sasuke grit his teeth but stayed back to avoid being punctured. He glared at Naruto within the mirrors. Angry at losing a chance to improve himself.

Seeing the distracted genin, Zabuza sped forward, intent on cleaving the last Uchiha in two.

"Now, now," Kakashi spoke as he blurred forward in response, using a pair of chakra reinforced kunai to keep the missing nin's Zanbatou at bay. "Your fight it with me. Lets leave the disciples out of this shall we?

* * *

Naruto frowned from within the dome of mirrors. Around him, the mirrors reflected the hunter nin onto all their surfaces, as one, they brought up their hands and fired off a volley of senbon.

Naruto tried to dodge them but mostly failed. Six senbon reached their mark. Two to his forearm, one to his back, and three more to his right thigh.

With the hunter nin being identical on all mirrors, it was impossible for him to tell where the attacks were coming from.

But that wasn't what held his attention.

"It can't be." Naruto said softly to himself.

"Oh?," the hunter nin queried, hearing the softly spoken words. Another volley of senbon left the mirrors. "What can't be?"

"No, please no." Naruto now sounded desperate. He absently pulled out the senbon in his legs but was forced to leaving those in his forearms and back in place as he dodged another shower of pain. This time he took 5 to his legs 2 to his other forearm, and another to his back.

"Have you realized the futility of your situation?" the hunter nin asked readying another volley. "Well then let me put you out of your misery." The nin release the third volley. But this time there were over a dozen senbon heading at Naruto.

Naruto saw them coming and knew he couldn't dodge them all. Knowing it was his only choice, he released a full body Doki with the chakra that had been automatically been building and compressing in his coils.

Like smoke bomb, nearly visible chakra exploded from Naruto, the senbon that had already been in his body joining their brethren as the flew back towards the mirrors. The hunter nin watched in consternation as one of his strongest attacks was nullified. Looking back towards the blonde genin, the ice-wielding nin saw that Naruto looked extremely exhausted and had let down his guard. Seeing his chance the nin readied himself to end the quick fight.

* * *

Naruto panted hastening to have his chakra refill his pathways. His took a second to remember the training he had received from the toad elders.

(Flashback)

-Night before the battle-

Naruto was panting trying to recover from a Zenmen-teki(Full-Scale) Doki, seeing it's new and improved effects. His training over that past day and a half had focused almost solely on his Doki skill upon Ma's insistence. She said she saw great promise for it, but the recharge time for the technique meant that Naruto was left open every time he used it. Ma had seen three possible fixes that would make the technique viable.

The first was to reduce the recharge time to the point where it was negligible. At gennin levels, that would mean a recharge time less than 5 seconds, at chunnin, less than 2 second, at Jonin levels it meant times less than half a second, and at kage it would have to be less than a millisecond.

The second was to find a way for him to release only a certain amount of the gathered chakra at a time. This meant that when he released a Doki from his arm, the would only release somewhere around 40% of the chakra built up in it. This would allow him to avoid making his limbs go through temporary chakra exhaustion due to pathway depletion every time he used the technique. While this technique would still have the necessity of him waiting between using Doki on the same limb, it would allow him to still use the limb in battle instead of having it dangle uselessly at his side.

The third possibility that Ma had seen was to choose, specifically, which tenketsu Naruto would release his technique from. By doing this, Naruto could avoid debilitating his limbs by, for example, only releasing a third of his tenketsu on his right arm, leaving the other two thirds to keep his arm running.

As it was, the latter two required chakra control well past what Naruto was capable of. The first required the least amount of control but would take the most amount of time for Naruto to physically work up to. Ma decided that Naruto would accomplish all three.

-A day and a half ago-

"Now Naruto," Shima said kindly as Naruto sat in front of the two toads."I want you to try the jutsu. If you can learn it, it will be extremely helpful for training. Its a highly chakra intensive technique so put a good bit into it."

Naruto had just gotten instructions on how to perform the Kage Bunshin form Fukasaku. Thinking it was the same as the technique he had seen in the scroll, he had channelled the same amount of chakra he used in his Zenmen-teki Doki and used the instructions Pa gave for the last half of the technique. Shima nearly had a heart attack when nearly 300 Shadow clones with high gennin chakra reserves appeared.

A moment of silence followed, from the two nonplussed elder toads, while Naruto cheered at creating working clones for the first time.

"Yatta!," Naruto exclaimed in joy, jumping around, "I'm the greatest. Take that Academy Exam. Two clones? HA! I made 300! How do you like me now M- Ittai!"

Shima whacked Naruto over the head and landed back on the ground as Naruto crouched down with his hands rubbing his now smarting head.

"Baka, I never said use that much chakra! Using that many Shadow clones is dangerous for you. Especially since you're still growing." Shima berated Naruto.

"But the scroll that Jiji had said that you were supposed to pump as much chakra as you can into the Taju Kage Bunshin." Naruto replied, one hand still massaging his scalp.

"For the Taju Kage Bunshin, yes, but what Pa taught you wasn't the Taju Kage Bunshin." Ma explained, her voice once again dropping into a motherly inflection."The regular Kage Bunshin has one distinct difference that makes its dangerous to use a large amount clones. That is why the Taju Kage Bunshin was created and listed as a separate technique."

"Really? What makes it so dangerous?" Naruto asked curious about Shima's extreme reaction.

In response, Shima made a quick set of hand signs and destroyed around 250 clones. "Each of you go get a leaf each." Shima said turning to the remaining 34 the clones sprinted of in different directions towards the edges of the clearing, she turned to Naruto to explain. "Unlike the Taju Kage Bunshin, the normal Kage Bunshin pass on their memories to their creator when they are dispelled."

Naruto nodded, not really understanding how that worked but taking it in stride, "but then wouldn't it be better to use more clones so I could learn more quicker."

Shima shook her head at Naruto's question. She already figured out that Naruto learned by doing so she had decided to nip this in the bud before Naruto tried it himself and got hurt. "I am about to show you what happens when you use too many clones at once."

Turning back to the clones who had each gotten a leaf she gave out her next set of instructions. "I want each of you to take the next 30 seconds to memorize as much of the leaf you each got as possible."

With a nod they each looked down at their leaves, a few of them sticking the tips of their tongues out in concentration. For the original Naruto, it was weird to see his face scrunched up in 34 different depictions of concentration. Shima counted down the 30 seconds in her head, and at the end, her hands once more blurred in hand seals before she brought them up to her mouth from which she spewed a controlled inferno to dispel the rest of the clones.

Naruto had been waiting to see what it would be like to have memories be transferred from the clones. Excitement soon turned to excruciating pain as the memories of the 34 clones hit him all at once, overloading his short term memory.

"Now do you get why it's not a good idea to use too many regular clones? That was only 34 clones, and the only information they passed along to you was the mental image of a leaf. With so many points of view being transferred at once, you hurt yourself if too many dispel at once, and you don't even learn anything*." Shima explained while Naruto slowly recovered from the intense but short lasting migraine.

Naruto wanted to argue that he could handle the pain and thus use more clones to learn quicker but, as Shima made her last point, he realized that he actually hadn't learned anything from the clones and just nodded in agreement.

What followed was 30 minutes of experimentation during which Ma and Pa tried to help Naruto find the most efficient number of clones to train with as the duration the clones lasted wasn't as much of an issue as the number of points of view. What Naruto found was that he could best handle three clones dispelling within a period of 5 minutes. With that discovered, Shima had Naruto make two clones with a large chunk of chakra. After 10 minutes of effort, The best Naruto could do was 5 clones each with mid Chunnin Chakra levels. Shima had Naruto dispel 3 of them before asking Naruto to create a single clone with as even more chakra. Slipping into Doki, he created a clone with a Zenmen-teki Doki worth of chakra, comparable to a mid Jonin. The three clones went with Pa as he lead them to the nearby river. Meanwhile Shima worked with Naruto on reducing the recharge on his Doki.

"Now Naruto, I want you to sit cross legged on the ground, and no matter what happens I want you to stay that way." Shima instructed as the last clone disappeared from view and Naruto sat on the ground. "Your Doki jutsu has great promise but it currently had too many holes for the enemy to exploit. As far as me and Pa can tell, there are three ways to fix this. Two of the solutions require much greater chakra control and Pa will explain them to your clones as he tries to help you with that. The third solution doesn't require control but if you want to use it, then you're going to have to further develop your chakra pathways. From what I could tell every time you used your jutsu, you create overload your coils, but when they heal, they increase by about .1%. Now that doesn't seem like a lot, but what that means is that every 700 or so times you use the technique, the amount of chakra you can channel at a given moment will double."

Shima smiled as Naruto face slowly lit up in wonder and excitement as the information sunk in. "I've seen you use Doki with one arm but can you use it with more?" Ma asked Naruto.

"Ya," he said, nodding in pride, "I can do one with my whole body that I call Zenmen-teki Doki, but the recharge time it still like 30 seconds. I already managed to shave a second of my one arm Doki to bring it down to a 9 second recharge."

The elder toad nodded, calculating how much Naruto could accomplish and creating a schedule for the remaining day and a half that she would remain summoned. " Alright then," Shima spoke, having finished with her plans,"if we work you to the bone for the next day and a half we could probably increase the size of your pathways by a factor of 5, maybe even 6 or 7 if we're lucky."

Naruto frowned at that. " But if I only need to use the jutsu 700 times to double wouldn't I be able to increase my pathways by…" Naruto paused for a minute tallying up numbers on his fingers."...by like 70?"

Ma shook her head. "We would if you continuously used the technique for the next 36 hours, but that's not an option. While you may have a lot of chakra, its not infinite. What we'll be doing is one hour of Doki practice followed by 3 hours of break to allow your chakra to replenish. During the three hours you'll eat and sleep. I'll also try to teach you some frog kata if you want."

Naruto nodded. Steeling himself for the training. For ten seconds he just sat there as the wind blew through the clearing. "So what am I supposed to do again?" Naruto asked

Shima just palmed her face.

-Back to the Night before the battle-

Shima had eventually explained to Naruto that he was to stay in a crosslegged position while performing a Zenmen-teki Doki. Impatient to get stronger, he didn't wait for Ma to finish and had sent himself launching into the sky. On the way down, Ma caught him and spent a good 10 minutes berating Naruto about patience. Eventually Shima had got around to explaining to Naruto exactly what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to use the Doki to send himself launching up in the air (at least he had gotten that part right). On his way up and down through the air, he was supposed to spend the time concentrating on refilling his pathways And then release whatever he had gathered as soon as he got closer to the ground, once again send him up in the air. Eventually, this helped Naruto learn to reduce his recharge time while also increasing the size of his chakra pathways.

Feeling himself finish recharging, Naruto pulled himself out of his retrospection to see the effects of his Zenmen-teki Doki.

Looking round the now larger clearing, he saw the marks on the trees, left over from when Ma and Pa taught Naruto the Frog Kata. Naruto had said that something about the technique felt missing, but was assured that it would be filled in for him at a later date. He was no master at the style, but he now had a taijutsu form that he knew at a mid genin level thanks to two of the clones practicing non stop while they worked on water walking.

After explaining to the three clones about the other two ways in which the flaws of Doki could be corrected, Fukasaku had show the two clones with chunin level chakra how to water walk and then left them to practice while he went back to the shore to work with the third clone.

The third clone had put it's mid Jonin chakra levels to good use by summoning the younger toads and making connections. Every toad summoner had their own set of toads that they would use and with how young Naruto was, it was decided that Naruto would make friends with the younger toads and make companions from there. So far, only four of them had made any impact on Naruto. Gamatatsu, Gamakōsei, Gamaimasu-fu and Gamakichi.

Gamatatsu was one of the sons of Gamabunta, the chief toad. He was laid back and more that a bit lazy, but him and Naruto had bonded over their mutual love for ramen, spending 2 hours debating the merits of various kinds. Before allowing him to dispel, Naruto had promised to summon him to eat with him at Ichiraku's.

Gamakōsei was the son of Gamaken. Unlike his father, he was quite confident in himself and used twin spears made to look like a pair of chopsticks. At first he had rubbed Naruto the wrong way, but after butting heads for a bit, Kōsei had decided that he was more that willing to follow someone as confident as Naruto.

Gamaimasu-fu, or Fu-chan as she had asked Naruto to call her, was the daughter of Gamahiro, and, at least to Naruto, highly confusing. When he had first summoned her, they had spent a few minutes talking about Naruto. Once Naruto got to his talking about his team and was forced to talk about Sasuke, Fu's eyes had started to sparkle before she abruptly dashed off in the direction of his team. Knowing all about Sasuke fangirls, he had been prepared to write her off, but half an hour later, she had come hopping back with frown on her face. When asked why she had come back, she had responded that she could never be attracted to something with a duck's ass on it's head. Naruto had fallen off the log he had been sitting on and pounded the floor in laughter. An hour and a half later he had decided that he liked Fu after talking with her some more, even if she looked at him a little weirdly. Sorta reminded him of Hinata actually.

Gamakichi was the other son of Gamabunta and was by far his favorite. Kichi was confident without being an asshole. They had enough in common that they spent a few hours lost in conversations that went over Fukasaku's head, but had enough differences that they could each teach the other new things. Kichi had never had too many friends as had been groomed for leadership from the instant he showed himself to be of summon intelligence. With his only other contact being Gamabunta and Gamatatsu, Kichi had insisted that they become brothers and that Naruto make him his primary summon at the end of the first day. Pa had explained that by contracting himself to Gamakichi, if he summoned a toad without specifying which toad he wanted, he would summon Gamakichi. It also meant that Naruto could shunt chakra into Kichi while they remained in contact. While it would do nothing in the human realm, every time Kichi went back to the summon realm, he would go through growth spurts, helping him reach boss summon size. In exchange, once reaching that point, Naruto would be able to summon him at any size he wanted for a greatly reduced chakra fee. The only issue was that such a contract had to be put into effect before the toad was still in the chibi class. Not seeing an issue with it, Naruto had acquiesced and Pa had taught him to summon a contract toad. After signing the contract, Kichi had stuck with the original while the clone had continued to summon, mostly to circulate his name amongst the toads.

"Damn,' Kichi whistled as he jumped atop Naruto's head."Your Doki has gotten so much stronger bro. Mine barely reaches a quarter of a foot."

Naruto smiled at Kichi's comment. Once he saw Naruto's Doki, Kichi had begged Naruto to teach him. Naruto had been hesitant to teach his brother at first, the hokage's words about how it would permanently damage anyone who didn't have the healing provided by the kyuubi, but Kishi had assuaged his concerns by telling him about a Toad technique called senjutsu and, after getting confirmation from Ma and Pa that it was okay, had taught Kichi the technique.

Senjutsu didn't seem to be able to heal as well as the Kyuubi so Kichi's recharge time was much longer than Naruto's and, due Kichi's immaturity, the effect of his Doki was much weaker than Naruto.

Naruto held his hand up in a fist in front of Kichi and got a fist-bump in return before Kishi dispelled for the first time since Naruto summoned him.

Naruto felt ready.

Having pushed himself, Naruto had blown Ma's estimate away by increasing his pathways 9-fold, and it showed. His Doki now had an increased range nearing 20 feet. his recharge time for a single limbed Doki recharge had been cut down from 10-15 seconds to 5-6 seconds passively, or 2-3 while actively concentrating on the limb. His Zenmen-teki Doki recharge had been similarly reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds passively, or 10 if concentrated. Another change was that he was now always prepped for a release. Using the Technique nearly 1500 times had made his body subconsciously alter the 'normal' pressure be the amount required to release a Doki at a moments notice.

He couldn't lose.

(Flashback end)

He couldn't win.

He couldn't hurt the hunter nin reflected at him from mirrors. Even if he had another two days, another week, another year to train, he couldn't.

"You have yet to hurt me once", the hunter nin declared, mirroring Naruto's thoughts.

"I can't…", came the response, the anguish in the blonde's voice obvious now.

"It seems you have finally realized your position." the hunter nin declared after a moment. "If only had given up the bridge builder when Zabuza trapped your sensei. You could have survived. But now your sensei won't let him die, and so I must kill you before I kill the bridge builder." The porcelain masked nin drew back both his arms. three senbon ready to fire from each.

Naruto clenched his teeth as he listened to the hunter nin's remarks, absently noting that his pathways had finished recharging.

There was a funny thing about his technique. Because he had to channel large amount of chakra into his pathways, the bleed-over had caused his senses to become extremely sharp. Even more-so than they were before, and they used to be on par with the Inuzuka.

As the hunter nins words floated through his ears, there was only one thing that was on his mind. Not the words or the hunter nin's intentions, but the voice. There was only one other voice that it reminded him of, and the two were and exact match.

"Would you really do that?", began Naruto, still crouched over.

"Ye-"

"Haku"

The hunter nin froze. For a moment, neither combatant moved. Then the hunter nin brought his arms back down and put the senbon away. Hands now free, he reached up and removed his mask to reveal a feminine face displaying a sad smile.

"Hello Naruto-san"

* * *

**AN: Hope you guys enjoyed. The bridge fight was supposed to end this chapter but Ma refused and shoved herself into a flashback. So long as the characters behave, then the battle will end next chapter.**

**I am still looking for a Beta so please. CONTACT ME**

***: A person's short term memory can only handle a certain amount of information at a time. When a clone dispels, its memories first go through the originals short term memory before being saved into long term. Try to 'remember' too much at once gives you a headache and leaves nothing learned. **


	6. Understanding

**Disclaimer:**** I still don't own Naruto**

**Here's the next chapter guys. Be sure read, review, favorite, subscribe, all that jazz.**

**ENJOY!**

**PS: I am still Looking for a Beta.**

* * *

_As the hunter nins words floated through his ears, there was only one thing that was on his mind. Not the words or the hunter nin's intentions, but the voice. There was only one other voice that it reminded him of, and the two were and exact match. _

"_Would you really do that?", began Naruto, still crouched over._

"_Ye-"_

"_Haku"_

_The hunter nin froze. For a moment, neither combatant moved. Then the hunter nin brought his arms back down and put the senbon away, The reflections of him disappearing one by one from the mirrors. Hands now free, he reached up and removed his mask to reveal a feminine face displaying a sad smile._

"_Hello Naruto-san"_

* * *

Sasuke grit his teeth as he stood a dozen meters from the dome of mirrors the hunter nin had created. Over the past few minutes, there had been small thumps from within the dome as the hunter nin attacked Naruto. Loathe as he was to admit it, he liked Naruto. To him, Naruto was the proof that you could overcome your limits with the right abilities.

Naruto had gone from the class idiot to being well on his path to becoming a competent Ninja. If a single technique could change the Dobe that much, then there was still hope that he could catch up to his brother and make him atone for his sins. Sasuke had tried to learn Naruto's Doki, but Kakashi's insistence that the only reason Naruto could use the technique without shorting out his pathways was because of his Uzumaki bloodline had made him back off from that avenue of advancement.

Who knew that Naruto had a kekkai genkai, even if it was only fast healing. Internally Sasuke remarked to himself that there was no wonder that Naruto's clan had died out. Despite the supposed insignificance of Naruto's clan, Sasuke felt himself connected to Naruto. One was the last Uchiha, while the other was the last Uzumaki. Both of them were loners, and both of them had impossible dreams that would come true, if only due their sheer will power.

Sasuke retrained his attention on the dome as the sounds inside stopped. From between the cracks he could see that Naruto had stopped moving and was facing one of the mirrors. Looking at the other mirrors, Sasuke noted that there were empty, no longer filled with the perfect replications of the hunter nin. He quickly deduced that Naruto was looking the enemy's real location. Finally Sasuke could help.

* * *

"Do we have to fight Haku?" Naruto asked. "You're my friend Haku, and I thought I was yours."

Haku stayed silent. face still as he stared at Naruto.

"Please Haku," Naruto begged, "why do we have to fight?"

For a moment, it looked like Haku had no answer. Naruto let himself hope that the fight would end without one of them killing the other.

"Because I am Zabuza-sama's tool." was his reply. Haku raised his head, his face resolute.

Naruto was speechless, trying to process the new information. Haku, kind Haku, Haku who had been so vibrant and joyful had declared herself a tool. "Why?" Naruto asked, trying to understand Haku's position.

" Do you know anything about the civil war in Water country?" Haku asked before Naruto shook his head in refutation. "When I was young, there was a sudden civil war between the general populace and those with Kekkei Genkai. Those without bloodlines believed that Kekkai Genkai wielders at fault for Third Shinobi War and the subsequent poverty that befell Water. Those with bloodlines were sick of being mistreated and attempted to overthrow the Mizukage but failed. Following the failed coup, those with bloodlines were hunted down mercilessly. Those who were lucky got out before the borders closed. The rest were forced to either join the resistance and fear being found by hunter nin, or pretend to be normal civilians and hope that they didn't slip."

Haku gave Naruto a few seconds to absorb that before continuing. "This is my Kekkei Genkai", Haku stated, bringing his arm up and through the mirror.

Naruto watched as a the air around it condensed before turning into a large snowflake made out of crystal-clear ice."the Hyoton. My mother was once the heiress of the Yuki clan of the Land of Snow before they were hunted down for their techniques. Eventually, the only one who remained was my mother and she fled to the Land of Water, hoping to leave the bloodshed behind."

"She succeeded for a while. She found love and married a small farmer in a happy community. I remember walking around the village with mother as people waved to us. It was a quiet but happy life."

"It all ended though. When I first manifested my kekkei genkai, my mother tried to help me suppress it, to keep the others from noticing that I wasn't like them. It was a futile effort. The villagers quickly noticed that water tended to freeze around me. Overnight, the smiles of the villagers turned into sneers. My father grew distant from us, constantly arguing with my mother."

Naruto watches as tears began to build in Haku's eyes as he recounted his story. It obviously pained him to recount his story, but he continued to speak.

"One night, I was woken up as my father crashed through the door of our house, intoxicated and leading a group of men. All of them armed with pitchforks and other farming equipment. My mother tried to protect me. She threw herself in front of the door to our shared room. I watched as my mother begged my father to leave me alone. I watched as he killed her and kept walking forward as she fell, intent on killing me. I watched as my mother's blood spread across the floor, and I watched as my father's blood joined hers as spears of Ice grew around me."

Tears were now streaming from Haku's eyes but his voice remained strong. Not wavering despite his sorrow.

"For months I traveled from town to town, not understanding why I was hated. Why people refused to sell me food when they saw the frost that clung to my clothes. Why they drove me out when I tried to amuse myself with making snowflakes."

Haku turned to look in the direction from which the sounds of Kakashi and Zabuza's clash rang.

"Then he came. When Zabuza-sama came, he gave me food, a purpose. When he looked at me, there was no condemnation in his eyes. He took care of me when the rest of my world hated me. Because of that…"

Haku turned to look back towards Naruto.

"Because of that, I would do anything for him."

Naruto understood as he gazed as the determination in Haku's eyes. They were the same. Naruto would do anything for Iruka, the Sandaime, or the Ichirakus. All three of them had looked at Naruto in acknowledgement when the rest of the village had believed him to be the fox. He understood why Haku was willing to become a tool for Zabuza. He understood that nothing Naruto said would convince Haku to abandon Zabuza.

"I understand Haku-" Naruto began but was cut off when Haku's mirror was enveloped in flames. Panicked, he ran towards the mirror, worried that Haku had been hurt.

As the flames dissipated, the mirror came back into view, intact and unmarred, with Haku still within.

"Don't worry, my mirrors are coated with chakra. Fire of this level won't even raise their temperature." Haku assuaged Naruto, seeing him care for his well being. On the other side of the dome, Sasuke scowled at the mirrors remaining unharmed before he headed back to guard the bridge builder as Haku's image was once more reflected in all the mirrors.

"You're such a kind person Naruto-san." Haku said as he reached into his pouch to once again draw out his senbon, "but you can't truly know of my burden."

Seeing that Haku was about to resume his attack, Naruto jumped back into the center of the dome to attempt to give himself a chance to dodge. From his peripherals, he saw the slightest movement to his left and released a Doki from his left arm before he could fully register the stimulus. As his his head turned to the left, he saw the last senbon fly through one of the cracks in the dome, having been deflected.

Before he could speak up and ask Haku to stop, another barrage of metal came from his right as Haku probed Naruto's defenses.

Haku noted to himself that the defense worked on both sides before he noticed that Naruto's right arm moved slightly slower for a few seconds. Wanting to double check, he threw another set at Naruto and watched as Naruto deflected it with his right arm. Under his breath he counted to five as the arm went from limp to normal. Feeling that he had figured out the trick, Haku threw a pair of Senbon, only throw another pair as soon as Naruto deflected the first pair. He watched in satisfaction as the Naruto didn't attempt to blow the second pair away and tried to dodge, succeeding in evading one of the senbon while the other lodged in his bicep.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he pulled the long piece of metal out his arm. Apparently Haku had figured out that his Doki needed a recharge time. He cursed his technique for needing to recharge but knew that he couldn't do anything about it right now. As Naruto saw the next barrage coming from the left, he tried to restrict the number of tenketsu he release the technique from, but partially failed. As the chakra exploded from his arm, he noted that there was still a small portion left, but not nearly enough to let him deflect the next salvo of oversized needles which ended up peppering his body.

He couldn't concentrate enough as he tried to keep an eye out for the next attack. Even if he could, he doubted it would help keep Haku from using him like a pincushion. What he need was armor. Armor that he didn't have and doubted was anywhere nearby. Thoughts of outside the dome reminded him of Sasuke's fireball and gave him another idea.

Naruto allowed himself to stop and closed his eyes, praying that Haku still liked him enough not to go for a kill shot. Naruto allowed the chakra in his pathways to completely refill, trying to ignore the pain as two more senbon pierced his arms. Once his pathways were full again, he allowed his chakra to slowly seep out of his tenketsu as another set of senbon slammed into his legs. Naruto clenched his teeth as he prepared for the hardest part. His previous thoughts had reminded Naruto of the layer of chakra Haku used to protect his mirrors. Naruto tried to replicate that on himself as drew the chakra he had allowed to seep out of his skin into a tight layer covering his body, grunting as fourth set of senbon embedded in his lower back. With a final mental effort, Naruto felt the layer of chakra stabilize into an extremely thin layer that covered his body. He was just in time as he felt the senbon barely pierce his chest before the tenketsu nearest to point of perforation released and the senbon went flying away.

Confused, Naruto opened his eyes to see three senbon fly towards his chest at extraordinary speed. Naruto both felt and saw what happened next.

Naruto had failed at creating an impenetrable chakra layer to cover his body, but what he did succeed in doing made Naruto grin anyways.

The layer Naruto created was too thin to stop the fast moving senbon. What happened was that when the senbon pieced the layer, the nearest tenketsu reflexively reacted, as the layer was still attached to his chakra circulatory system, and released itself to blow the senbon away before it could pierce too deeply into his skin. What's more, because only a few tenketsu were released at a time, the recharge time was tiny.

Naruto grinned as another three senbon aimed as his back were blown away. He didn't even need to know the senbon were coming. He didn't try to remove the senbon that were still in him, a combination of this being a new technique he was using for the first time and his low control meant that it was all he could do to keep it working.

Naruto waited for Haku to realize that he could no longer pierce Naruto as the number of senbon littering the ground around him increased. It took a minute, but Haku apparently got the message as he eventually stopped throwing and senbon and the mirror images disappeared until a single Haku remained in the mirror in front of him.

Naruto and Haku slowly allowed themselves to calm down as the adrenaline faded from their system.

"Like I said" Naruto spoke softly before Haku figured out a way past his new and unrefined technique and started to attack. "I understand your pain."

"How could you?" Haku asked, his voice now accusatory, frustration at Naruto stalemating his best technique getting to him.. "Even if you had a kekkai genkai, you are a Ninja of Konohagakure. They praise kekkei genkai and would treat you like a prince."

"I'm pretty sure I don't have a kekkei genkai," Naruto said. "And even if I did, I doubt it would help."

Naruto debated whether or not he wanted to do this before deciding that it might be the only way to get a chance to end this fight without death. Naruto reached down to grab the helm of his jacket. "You told me about your curse," Naruto spoke as he pulled up his orange jacket and the shirt beneath it."So let me show you mine."

Naruto began to let his chakra circulate within him and watched as Haku's eyes focused on the seal that appeared on his stomach. He obviously didn't know what the seal signified, Haku's eyes reflecting his confusion. Naruto wondered if those eyes would reflect hatred when he found out.

Mentally shaking his head, Naruto pushed those concerns to the side and forged forward. "On the day I was born, the Kyuubi attacked my village. They always told us that the Yondaime took it with him when he died, but the villagers knew the truth."

Haku's eyes slowly widened as he listened to Naruto's story. He didn't know much about the biju, but when Zabuza had talked about the Mizukage and the Sanbi, he had mentioned that the biju couldn't be killed.

Seeing the dawning understanding in Haku's eyes, Naruto nodded. "That's right. Knowing that he couldn't kill it, the Yondaime sacrificed his life to seal the biju within me. For the first twelve years of my life, I didn't know why people would avoid me in the streets. Why they wouldn't let me play with their kids, and why it was so scary to look in their eyes. I thought about leaving so many times, and probably would have if it wasn't for Ayame-chan. She was helped in her father's ramen store, and when she saw me looking depressed by the road-side, she dragged me over to her store and gave me a ramen on the house."

Naruto rubbed his nose, his eyes now slightly leaking as he told Haku something he had never told anyone else.

"Like I said," Naruto said, wiping his eyes, "I understand because we would both do anything to protect our precious people. That's why I can't hurt you, because you're one of my precious people too."

Haku didn't know what to do. This boy truly understood him. He understood the pain of being isolated for a reason you didn't understand and he understood the Haku's determination to do anything for his precious people.

"I….I really wish there was another way." Haku said, not seeing a way out. Haku didn't want to hurt Naruto, but he would kill his heart and do so for Zabuza if he had to.

"Five minutes," Naruto said, confusing Haku.

"What?" Haku asked confused at what Naruto meant by that statement.

"Give me five minutes and I'll make it so we no longer have a reason to fight." Naruto declared.

Haku's eyes widened at the confidence in Naruto's couldn't figure out how Naruto thought he could end this fight in 5 minutes. By all rights, Haku should take the chance and incapacitate Naruto while he had his guard down, but he found himself believing in Naruto. The utter confidence in the 12 year old's voice indicating that Naruto truly believed that his plan would work.

"...", Haku opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Closing it, he nodded and placed his trust in Naruto.

Naruto smiled at Haku's consent and bit his thumb. quickly running through the now, well ingrained set of hand signs, Naruto smacked his hand against the ground as a small plume of smoke erupted from concrete.

"What the? Naruto?", a voice came from within the smoke. Naruto watched as it dissipated to reveal a small orange toad, "What do you need me for?"

"Hey Kichi, I need you to tell _HIM_ that I'm going to call him. It's an emergency"

Kichi looked like he was about to say something before he just nodded and dispelled himself.

"I need you to open a path out for me," Naruto said, looking back up at Haku, "preferably facing the direction our senseis are fighting"

Haku hesitated a moment before allowing seven mirrors to dissipate. "Please don't hurt Zabuza-sama."

Naruto smiled widely."Don't worry I won't hurt your precious person."

Looking back at the opening, he saw a dense fog from which he heard the sounds of Kakashi and Zabuza fighting. He closed his eyes, concentrating for this next part. Feeling himself centered on what he needed, he kept the thought firmly in his mind as he once more flashed through the seals for the summoning jutsu.

Another puff of smoke appeared when Naruto slammed his hands no the ground. This time, it was the size of a full grown adult.

Naruto watched as the white smoke cleared to show a blue toad, about the size of Tazuna.

"Yo," the toad said, "I'm Gamakaze."

"Can you use wind jutsu?", Naruto hurriedly asked. The toad nodded and Naruto pointed at the dense fog outside the dome. Understanding what needed to be done, brought his hands to his lips before inflating himself to ridiculous proportions. Finally reaching its limits, the toad let out the gathered air and Naruto watched as the chakra laden mist cleared to show a surprised Kakashi and Zabuza.

Naruto didn't bother to wait for them to speak before he dashed out of the dome, using Doki to boost his speed and cratering the concrete beneath him. Zabuza jumped to the side, arms crossed, as he thought Naruto was headed towards him. Naruto ignored him and he reached the edge of the bridge and used his second leg to propel himself upward as he cleared it. Reaching the zenith of this jump, Naruto oriented himself face down.

Naruto was now falling through the air, seconds from landing in the water and his legs remained temporarily useless, not that he would need them. Naruto used the extra air time to pump immense amounts of chakra into his third set of summoning seals. Naruto brought his arms before him as drew closer to the end of this short flight.

The rest of the spectators were confused as they saw Naruto go flying into air and then down towards the water. Only Kakashi had some inkling of what Naruto was attempting.

As his hands made contact with the surface of the water, A huge plume of smoke erupted from the point of contact, reaching the level of the bridge and rising above it.

Zabuza watched with his mouth open as the smoke cleared to show that the genin had summoned the well known chief summon of the toads, Gamabunta.

"Where the hell are you brat," the immense toad rumbled,"Kichi said it was an emergency."

"I'm up here," Naruto panted reeling for the amount of chakra he had used.

Gamabunta noticed that slight weight on top of his head was apparently the newest toad summoner. He debated knocking him off or making him take the obligatory test, but decided to put that off for another time.

"Zabuza!" Naruto shouted, having regained his breath."Stop this fight."

The Demon of the Mist raised his eyebrow at the blonde brats demands. "Oh? And why should I? So what if you summoned the Chief Toad? He won't be any use to you in this fight. He's too big to join in"

Gamabunta stayed quiet, willing to see what his summoner's plan was. It would be a good way to determine the merit of Minato's son.

"I know," Naruto replied, "but try sensing my chakra levels."

Naruto allowed his pressurized chakra to start pouring out of his tenketsu, creating a slight blue tinge around him. Zabuza didn't need to try to sense the blonde's chakra levels. Just seeing the slightly visible chakra pour out of the kid was enough to convince Zabuza that he still had a lot left.

"I have more than enough to summon a small army of battle toads if I want to." Naruto bluffed. He barely had more chakra than a gennin at the moment. "Even you would lose if you tried to battle Kakashi-sensei and the toads at the same time."

Gamabunta internally smiled at Naruto's likeness to his father. He had remembered when Minato had used Gamabunta to stop a village from revolting through pure intimidation. Apparently both father and son prefered to avoid hurting others if possible.

Meanwhile, Zabuza was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If the brat really did have the ability to summon a small army of toads, then there would be no chance of winning this fight. If stood down, then it would be equally as bad. Gato was paying a huge amount of money that he could put towards the civil war. If he surrendered, then, not only would he not be paid, he had no doubt that Gato would spread the word that he had given up, tarnishing this reputation and meaning that future jobs would be harder to come by and be lower paying. Before he could make up his mind, he heard footsteps coming from the unfinished end of the bridge. As he turned to see the source, he absently noted that the mist had moved to cover up the giant frog at the side of the bridge.

* * *

Everyone on the bridge watched as a short man came into view, leading an army of thugs behind him.

"Gato," Zabuza growled, "what are you doing here?"

The now identified Gato ignored the question as he looked around."I honestly thought at least a few of you would be dead by now," Gato sneered," looks like both you and your enemies are weak."

Zabuza ignored the insult and repeated his question."I asked you what you were doing here Gato"

"Don't you get it yet?", Gato shot back, "I decided you were too expensive so I got an army of thugs to help me put you down. The bounty offered for your head will more that make up for their cost, and I can kill the bridge builder at the same time."

Haku drew up beside her master as he came to terms that he had been double-crossed.

"Kakashi," Zabuza grunted,"It looks like we have no more reason to fight."

"So it seems," Kakashi replied, bringing his headband back down to cover his sharingan.

Haku looked over to the side, hearing that they no longer had a reason to fight, and looked at Naruto, who was just visible over the mist. Naruto shook his head vehemently, denying that this was part of his plan.

Meanwhile, Sakura had decided to voice herself from across the bridge. "Why do you want to control this country so much? They have nothing left to give you. Just leave them alone!"

"Nothing left to give me?" Gato laughed," They still live don't they. I can keep milking them for money for a long as they live. It's their fate to live like animals, scraping the molded food out of their bowel to survive. Who care's if they suffer? They don't matter! besides, if I need more money, I can always sell their women off like slaves. You know what? After I kill then men, I'll make you the first slave! You're a little young, but with your hair, There's bound to be someone who'll p-"

Gato was cut off violently as a kunai entered his skull and exited the other side, taking brain matter and bone fragments with it. On the other side of the bridge, the villagers crested over the hill top in time to hear Gato's tirade and see his subsequent execution.

Everyone looked to see where the kunai had come from, only to see the wall of mist.

* * *

Gamabunta had watched the drama play out beneath him as the anger of his summoner shot through the roof. He could actually feel the brat vibrating ,as he held himself back, from where he stood atop the chief toad's head. Bunta's anger had been rising at an equal rate, so when his summoner had taken the unilateral decision to violently end that disgusting midget's life, he approved heartily. He had made his choice. Naruto had proven that he would try to avoid hurting people, but that he could also be ruthless when someone threatened the innocent.

Beneath him on the bridge, the thugs had begun to advance, yelling like barbarians. They had apparently decided that the source of the kunai was one of the ninja on the bridge and declared that they were going to kill the ninja before pillaging the town.

"Gamabunta," Naruto started.

"Got it." the chief toad cut him off, already knowing what he wanted. With a flourish, he unsheathed the massive tanto he kept at his side and plunged it down into the bridge.

Naruto watched atop Gamabunta, using the tree climbing exercise to keep him attached, as Gamabunta's huge sword plunged down, crushing the lead thug before it was cleanly driven through the bridge.

The thugs froze in shock at the lead thug being turned into a blood splatter by a tanto the size of a small building and a enormous toad appearing from the mist.

"This is your only warning," Naruto started, calling their attention further up to see a young blond haired boy standing atop the colossal toad, his voice easily reaching across the now quiet battlefield.."From today onwards, this Land is under the protection of Naruto Uzumaki, genin of Konohagakure. Spread the word that the next time someone tries to take over Wave country, I will come and crush them."

Gamabunta leered at the thugs, causing many to piss themselves. "Make sure that they know that the toads stand with their new summoner and will protect Nami as well." He rumbled.

For a moment, none of the thugs dared move. Gamabunta perceptibly tightened his grip on his tanto and it became the signal for the thugs to turn tail and stampede back the way they came.

The villagers watched as, for the first time in years, their country was free from oppression. Inari started it, but soon everyone was cheering in jubilation.

Gamabunta used his tongue to take hold of Naruto, placing him gently on the bridge. "I like you gaki," the giant toad managed to say softly enough that only Naruto heard him over the cheers." feel free to summon me until Gamakichi is ready."

As Gamabunta dispelled in a plume of white smoke, Naruto let himself relax and felt himself falling backwards as the adrenaline left his system. Before he could hit the ground, he felt someone catch him and looked back to see the smiling face of Haku.

"Thank you Naruto," Haku said, his voice soft but the affection unmistakable,"Thank you for giving me another precious person."

* * *

Team seven, Zabuza and Haku were standing at the end of the bridge.

It had taken a bit, but with everyone's help Tazuna's bridge had been finished in record time. When Naruto had finally woken up after passing out on the bridge, he had been surprised to see that Gamabunta's sword had remained in the bridge. After receiving permission from Gamabunta, through Kichi, the villagers had decided to just keep it there as a monument to their freedom.

There was only so much that needed to be done though, so, eventually, it was time to leave and Naruto had a heartfelt goodbye with Inari on the Nami side of the bridge before walking across it with Zabuza and Haku who were leaving as well.

Haku was talking with the genin while the two adults conversed.

"So where are you guys going?" Sakura asked Haku, who was once more in his kimono.

"Zabuza-sama wouldn't tell me." Haku replied.

"You're not coming with us?" Naruto asked.

Haku shook his head, "Zabuza-sama and I are still missing-nin. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't just join Konoha."

Naruto just pouted at that answer.

"It's alright Naruto-kun" Haku giggled,"I enjoyed the time I spent with you. I'm sure we'll meet again."

Before anyone could react, Haku leaned in and gave Naruto a kiss on the cheek.

"Aww," Sakura cooed. " you make such a cute couple."

Sakura waited for a response from Naruto but when she looked over, she saw his completely still and pale face.

"Naruto?" Sakura waved her hand in front of his face, not getting a response."What's wrong with him?"

Haku giggled at Naruto's reaction, "I think it's because I'm a guy."

Sasuke, who had stayed silent till now, widened his eyes in surprise before dry-heaving off to the side.

Sakura seemed have been lost in yaoi fantasy land before a shrill cry snapped her out of her daze. She looked to its source to see a screaming Naruto hightailing it in the direction of Konoha.

* * *

**AN: Thanks for reading. Please Review**


	7. A Clan?

**Disclaimer: See Ch. 1**

**Sorry for the delay in this chapter but I recently started a second story and, after it received a lot of support, felt obligated to post a few chapters of that first.**

**Something that didn't really help with was that I recently got a new puppy!**

**Another note for everyone reading is that College has finally restarted for me so Updates will now be released on a Scheduled basis. At this moment, it looks like any new updates will be posted on Sundays. Now that doesn't mean that I will only be posting one chapter a week as I'll probably be able to get around to posting more that one chapter at a time based on workload for that week.**

**I tried a slightly different writing style this chapter so leave me a review telling me what you think about it compared to the older chapters.**

**I'm Still Looking for a Beta. Message Me if Interested!**

**Thanks for all the support from you guys!**

**RRFSC**

* * *

From far away, if a civilian looked at a certain street in Konoha, they would see two orange figures moving down it at a leisurely pace.

If the civilian was in fact a ninja, they'd see that the two figures were Konoha's most unpredictable ninja walking down the street with a toad that came up to his knee hopping along beside him.

"So," Naruto spoke to Kishi as they continued down the path, " has Gamabunta gotten a new sword yet?"

"It's a tanto Naruto," Kishi chided, "and no, Pa hasn't gotten a new one yet because it takes time to build such a huge weapon."

"Neh, why you gotta be so mean Kishi?" Naruto asked, faking hurt in his voice, "Does it really matter what I call it?"

"You're one to talk," Kishi scoffed,"that poor brat ran off thinking that you were actually going to chase after him."

"You mean Konohamaru?" Naruto asked, " I'm just giving him a head start. I'm a genin who saved a nation while he's still an Academy student. It wouldn't be fair if actually tried."

"LAZY" Kishi croaked in response as his next hop shoved Naruto to the side.

"I'm not lazy," Naruto cried indignantly." I'm just...just...just being strategic. Yeah that's it, I'm being strategic. If I let Kono run around and tire himself out then he'll be easy to catch. It'll be a good lesson for him."

Naruto slammed a fist into his other palm as if he had accomplished something monumental. Kishi just gave a throaty chuckle and Naruto responded by sticking his tongue out at him.

Before either of them could bring up a new line of conversation, they heard a shout of fear from about two streets down and around the corner.

Both of them recognizing the voice, they hurried to reach the source of the commotion. As they came around the corner, Naruto noticed a few things right off the bat. The first was that Sakura was already there. The next and more pressing was that Konohamaru was being held by some black clothed clown with make-up on while a blonde chick stood nearby.

As his ears caught up to his eyes, he heard the tail end of the conversation that the clown was apparently having with Sakura."-I'll teach the brat to respect his elders."

Before the other boy could carry out his threat, Naruto spoke up, "Hey, clown face, let him go."

"Naruto-nii!", Konohamaru somewhat relaxing as he realized that his older brother figure had arrived.

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, also relaxing at seeing her team member. Ever since seeing his accomplishments at wave, Sakura had greatly increased her respect for the loud blonde. Sure, she still denied his requests for a date, but she had finally realized Naruto's strength.

"Great another shorty," the make-up boy said exasperatedly. "Well try and and make me brat and I'll teach you the same lesson I'm about to teach the pipsqueak."

Naruto bit his thumb, drawing blood, and was about to proceed to summon Gamakaze.

The other boy was too far away for him to use his Doki and even if he used his Piston Steps, having named the speed increase he got when he used Doki in conjunction with his legs, to get next to the boy, he'd be vulnerable and wasn't sure he'd be able to get away with Konohamaru in tow. His only option was to summon a toad as he didn't have any long range attacks of his own.

Before Naruto could finish his hand signs, the boy in black cried out as something impacted with his hand and forced him to release the younger kid. Falling on his ass, Konohamaru quickly realized that he was free and ran to the other end of the street.

Naruto, meanwhile, had released the jutsu before finishing it and had looked to see where the projectile had come from to find Sasuke looking cool as a cucumber as he stood on a tree branch and leaned against the trunk, lightly tossing another pebble. Naruto scowled as Sasuke acting so cool when he could have handled it before freezing as he felt something else.

Naruto had never been good at sensing, but ever since Jiraiya had put that extra seal over his Eight Trigrams Seal, he had found that he could sense when someone with large reserves got angry. Right now, there was an absolutely enormous presence on the opposite side of the trunk from Sasuke, and it was raving mad.

"Sasuke!' Naruto yelled out in fear, "Get away from there!"

Not fully processing the command, Sasuke subconsciously took in the order and followed without hesitation, landing on Naruto's right while Sakura moved closer and stood on Naruto's left.

Looking back at the tree everyone could now see that a red haired boy with a gourd was standing on the underside of a branch on the same tree. The boy narrowed his eyes at being discovered before vanishing in swirl of sand, only to reappear in a similar swirl by the pair at the other end of the street.

"Kakuro, you're a disgrace," he spoke in a soft voice.

"But Gaara," the now named Kankuro tried to explain himself,"I was-"

"Shut up or I'll kill you." was the impatient response.

Naruto slightly shivered as he listened in on the conversation. Throughout the whole thing, everything about Gaara's posture and voice was calm, but Naruto could still feel the violent emotions that threatened to be unleashed. The other pair could apparently pick up on it as well since everything about their body language screamed extreme weariness.

"Come, let's go." Gaara declared and the boy turned to follow, only stopping when the, till now, silent girl spoke up.

"Wait," she said, bringing the two boys with her to a halt. "what's your name?"

"Why should I tell you my name," Sakura shot back.

"I wasn't talking to you pinkie," the blonde girl scoffed. "I meant your teammates."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes before responding, "Sasuke Uchiha."

"Oh?!" the girl exclaimed as the red haired boy started to look interested."So you're the _Last Uchiha_. And what about you whiskers?"

Naruto scowled at the nickname, annoyance temporarily overriding caution as he yelled back,"Naruto Uzumaki, Dattebayo!"

"Really," Kankuro asked, confusing Naruto with the sudden interest in the eyes of the other nin. Sasuke he could understand because the Uchiha was a powerful clan, but what was so special about his name?

"So an Uzumaki still remains in Konoha," the blonde girl said as Naruto was still puzzling over the sudden interest shown over his last name.

"Hey pigtails," Sakura called, annoyed at being dismissed so nonchalantly," what're Suna-nin doing in Konoha?"

"My name's Temari brat," the now identified girl yelled back as her eye twitched in annoyance before she calmed herself." And we're here for the Chunnin exams."

Before any more words could be exchanged, Gaara once more spoke up, apparently having grown bored."Temari, Kankuro, let's go."

His two teammate nodded in acquiescence before jumping away. Gaara remained for a second, staring both Naruto and Sasuke down.

"I hope to see you there," he eventually declared before he too jumped away.

* * *

Naruto, and Sakura stood together on the bridge while Sasuke stood a little further away.

"Dammit sensei!", Sakura yelled in frustration, "If he's going to call us on our day off then he should at least be on time. We've been waiting here for an hour already."

"We should be late too if sensei is always going to be late!" Naruto declared, trying to back Sakura up.

Sakura merely spun around and bonked Naruto on the head. This time he didn't crash to the ground as Sakura no longer put as much power into her punches after Wave, having accepted that while Naruto was an idiot, he was still a strong idiot and obviously worked hard.

"We can't do that baka," Sakura chided Naruto, "We're genin so we have to follow rules and do what our jonin-sensei says."

Naruto slightly pouted at being reprimanded, internally grateful that Sakura had toned down her monster punches.

"Neh Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked after a few moments of peaceful quiet, "Wanna go out on a date?"

This time Sakura didn't hold back and the unprepared Naruto was floored.

"Dammit Naruto,' Sakura yelled," just cuz I admit that you've gotten strong and work hard doesn't mean that I'll go out with you so stop asking!"

"My, my," came a voice from the end of the bridge.

The trio of gennin turned to see Kakashi walking towards them with his nose once more buried in a book.

"Aren't you lively today?" he asked as he put the book away in a pocket on his jacket, affectionately patting it as it slipped in.

"You're late Kakashi-sensei," Sakura and Naruto yelled in tandem, the latter still on the ground.

"My bad,' Kakashi apologized, though the expression on his face looked decidedly fake."but I was busy signing the three of you up for a certain test."

Sakura and Sasuke quickly connected the dots and their eyes widened in surprise.

Naruto, meanwhile, pouted as he got up from the floor of the bridge." But Kakashi-sensei, I don't wanna take a test!"

Underneath his mask, Kakashi's mouth quirked upwards at his third student, noting that other two somehow already knew what he was talking about.

"Trust me Naruto-kun," Kakashi said,"you'll love these tests. It's a simple event called the Chunnin Exams."

As Naruto finally understood, he began to jump around in joy.

Still amused at the blonde's antics, Kakashi reached into a pocket and pulled out a few papers.

"Here are the papers for you guys," he said and then handed them out to each of the three genin.

"Um Kakashi-sensei", Sakura said demurely,"do you really think we're ready for this?"

Sakura still remembered how useless she felt during the Wave Mission as Sasuke took out the water clones and Naruto ran Gato's army off.

Kakashi turned to Sakura and gave her an eye smile.

"You don't have to enter if you feel like you're not ready," Kakashi said reassuringly. "But I'm not worried, I wouldn't have entered the three of you if I didn't feel like you weren't prepared."

"Really?" Sakura asked as she looked at the jonin.

"Really," Kakashi confirmed, "Once you make up your mind, just show up where it says to, on the sheet I gave you, in a weeks time."

Sakura nodded before smiling.

"I have to go rub this in Ino-buta's face!" she exclaimed before running of the bridge into town.

Sasuke grunted out something that sounded like training before jumping onto the roofs and heading for the Uchiha compound, leaving Naruto and Kakashi on the bridge.

"Any questions?" Kakashi asked his final student.

Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds, looking at the sheet of paper in his hands and remembering the Suna-nin who were also entering.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto asked, his voice softer than normal. "Do I have a clan?"

Kakashi's eyebrows rose at the query, wondering how Naruto was clued in to something that nearly everyone but the eldest shinobi in Konoha had forgotten.

"Why do you ask?" Kakashi asked, trying to figure out how much Naruto knew.

"We met some Suna-nin earlier today," Naruto said, "and when I told them my name, they seemed really interested and one of them even remarked 'So an Uzumaki still remains in Konoha'."

Kakashi internally cursed. The Uzumaki used to be a big deal and it was not surprising that other villages still remembered the legendary clan even though Konoha had tried to suppress memories of their biggest failure.

Kakashi looked over at the Hokage monument as if he was trying to seek guidance from the fourth before finally coming up with a plan of action.

"This is a long talk that we shouldn't have in the middle of the village," Kakashi said. "How about you meet me at Training Ground Seven tomorrow and I'll see what I can tell you."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise at seeming making a breakthrough in finding family before nodding like a bobble head and they racing off into the village, undoubtedly to get something to eat before camping out in Training Ground Seven for the night.

Kakashi sighed as he watched his sensei's son run off.

"Dammit Minato-sensei," Kakashi said under his breath, "you're son is just as troublesome as your wife."

* * *

Kakashi sat in the tree as he watched Naruto sleep against a post in TG 7.

Unsure about just how much to divulge, he had gone to see the Sandaime yesterday for advice. After someone talking between themselves and even bringing in Shikaku for his opinion, a decision had been reached.

Early on in the talks, it had been realized that they couldn't try to ignore this as it was unlikely that this would be the first time that Naruto would come under the spotlight for his name. Especially since Naruto was likely to announce it at every opportunity. They also couldn't tell him too much about his parentage as it would bring assassins down on the unprepared gennin's head. The final decision was to tell Naruto about the basic history of the Uzumaki while also telling him that the identity of his parents was classified until Naruto was stronger.

Looking at the position of the sun to see that it was around 7 in the morning, Kakashi jumped down walked over to the oblivious genin. Kakashi silently jumped atop the post Naruto was using as a back rest and looked down at the mop of blond hair. Remembering the eraser prank that Naruto had pulled on him, Kakashi decided that this was a great time to get some childish revenge. Putting his hands into a Dragon seal, Kakashi grabbed onto a glob of water from the nearby stream and brought it to hover above the sleeping boy. With a grin reminiscent of Obito, Kakashi released his hold on the orb of water and watched it splash over his student.

Naruto had been in beautiful dream about being served ramen by an unidentifiable woman with red hair while she bickered with a blond haired man sitting on the opposite side of the table. The peaceful dream was quickly ended as he woke up spluttering and wet.

Confused and cold, Naruto quickly jumped up from where he had been sleeping and yelled in surprise. He looked around, trying to figure out which rude asshole woke him up before hearing giggling behind him. Naruto turned to see his sensei crouching atop the same post he had been sleeping against, head once more buried in an Icha Icha as he giggled behind it.

"Dammit Sensei! You're…" Naruto yelled before trailing off as he realized that the sun was still low on the horizon, "on time? Is that really you? Are you sick?"

"Is it really that surprising that I came on time?", Kakashi asked.

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted back.

"Well I can come back and talk about your clan in two hours if you'd like" Kakashi said, standing up on the post and making as if he was about to jump away.

"NONONONO," Naruto said hurriedly. "It's perfectly normal for you to be on time." Naruto lied, trying to keep his jounin-sensei from leaving.

Kakashi smirked in victory as he crouched back down on the post.

"So I really do have a clan?" Naruto asked, remembering Kakashi's threat.

"Yes Naruto," Kakashi said as he settled himself in for what would be a long talk."The Uzumaki clan hailed from Uzushiogakure and were quite well known to the rest of the Elemental Nations."

Naruto's eyes widened at the information.

"What made them so well known?", Naruto asked, eager to learn more about his clan.

"The Uzumaki were collectively known as the peaceful dragon." Kakashi said, remembering stories that Kushina had once told him. "They didn't have much in the way of economic power and their shinobi never grew too large in numbers, but other villages were highly respectful of them to the point that the Big Five were considering adding them as a sixth. What made them so powerful were their Fuuinjutsu and large reserves."

"Fuuinjutsu?" Naruto interrupted,"you mean the scroll that you can seal kunai in?"

"Yes," Kakashi answered,"but that is only the lowest level of fuuinjutsu. True practitioners of fuuinjutsu can accomplish so much more. Take your seal that holds the Kyuubi at bay, it's actually an altered Uzumaki seal. With their long lives and large reserves, the Uzumaki could learn, create, and activate seals that were beyond the abilities of any other. Their reserves were especially useful as they could grow truly monstrous and allow them to effectively use chakra-seals."

"Chakra-seals?"

Kakashi nodded and held up one of hands."Unlike normal seals written in ink, Chakra-seals are made purely out of Chakra. This makes them extremely costly chakra-wise, but it also makes them much quicker to use."

Naruto watched as Kakashi released very light blue chakra from his palm and it formed undecipherable lines and squiggles in an invisible plane just in front his hand. Kakashi then slammed his hand onto the ground and then retracted it. Naruto saw that where he had slammed his hand, the same set of lines and squiggles appeared on the ground.

"As you can see," Kakashi continued after his demonstration, "As long as I have the seal firmly grasped in my mind, I can create it out of my chakra and place it on any surface it contact. What I used was a simple storage seal, but a seal master could use paralysation seals and chakra restriction seals in the middle of battle."

Naruto's mouth opened in astonishment before he cheered,

" Take that," he yelled to no one in particular, "my clan is friggin awesome."

Kakashi smiled at his exuberant student, happy that he was able to learn about his roots.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said turning to his smiling teacher, "can we please go to Uzushiogakure so I can meet my clan? Maybe I have cousins, or an aunt and uncle, or grandparents there."

"I'm sorry Naruto," said Kakashi, truly sad to have to break the next bit of information, " but Uzushi was destroyed at the start of the third shinobi war. There's nothing there but ruins there now."

Naruto's eyes widened before filling in tears.

"Is-is that how my parents died?" Naruto choked out.

Kakashi shook his head."You were born well after the end of the third war Naruto." He explained,"your parents lived in Konoha before they died."

"Oh," Naruto said, dejected and the two lapsed into silence for a few minutes. "Kakashi-sensei, who were my parents."

Kakashi prepared himself to answer the touchy subject, already knowing that Naruto wasn't going to like the answer.

"I can't tell you that."

"What! Why?", Naruto said angrily.

"It's not that I don't want to Naruto," Kakashi placated the mad blonde, " but you're parents were well known. It was deemed that, with you already being the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, it would be safer if you didn't know till you were stronger."

Naruto grit his teeth at having the information he wanted most being held just out of his reach.

"Then how strong do I have to become?" Naruto asked brashly as he jumped to his feet and pointed at Kakashi.

"Well I'd say you'd have to be at least high chuunin for your mother. You'd probably have to be on the level of an ANBU captain for your father though" Kakashi said, tapping his chin in thought.

"Well then I'm going to blow past these exams and become jonin in less than a year!" Naruto declared.

'I have no doubt that you will' Kakashi thought as he watched Naruto begin to start pounding away at post.

* * *

Another chip of wood splintered of the post as a fist once more slammed against it.

Sasuke shifted to the side to let the sliver of wood fly past him before he brought his hand back in and slammed a kick into the beaten post. He didn't even notice the smarting of his knuckles as his thoughts were filled with something else. As he continued to wail at the post, Sasuke kept going over everything that had happened over the past few months.

Looking back, he realized that ever since passing the Academy Exam and becoming a genin, he hadn't really improved. Sure he could now work in a team, use the tree walking exercise, and had somewhat increased his speed, but compared to Naruto, he was making no progress.

The class dobe had grown in leaps and bounds, going from not even being able to create a clone to being able to summon giant toads and drive away an army of mercenaries all on his lonesome.

All the while Itachi was probably also growing at an equally scary pace. Being a genius that came once a generation, there was no way that the butcher of the Uchiha clan was anything but immensely stronger than he was the day he left.

Meanwhile, here he was, the rookie of the year and peer proclaimed strongest genin of Konoha falling behind both of them. How was he supposed to overtake Itachi and bring him to justice if he was already in danger of falling behind Naruto.

Naruto.

Sasuke grit his teeth and slammed against the post even harder, sending a crack running halfway down the length of wood.

After the battle, he'd asked Kakashi about the toads Naruto had summoned but hadn't been all that happy with the answer. Apparently Naruto had gotten the summons from the Sannin Jiraiya, an S-class Ninja who was on Itachi's level. The summons also meant that Jiraiya had taken Naruto as an apprentice.

It annoyed Sasuke that Naruto got an S-Class teacher while he was still stuck with Kakashi. Sure Kakashi was strong, but Sasuke had looked into some of the Bingo books within the compound and found that Kakashi of the Sharingan was still an A-Class Ninja.

Sasuke put another crack in the post as he was reminded of another sore point.

He still didn't have a Sharingan. At the age of 13 and already having participated in an A-Rank Mission, Sasuke was, according to the meticulous records kept by the Uchiha, behind in unlocking his Sharingan. Most Uchiha already had at least 2 tome by the time they participated in a B-Rank mission, but here Sasuke was, not even having unlocked his after an A-Rank.

With a final chakra fuelled punch, the post broke under the pressure and fell to the ground.

Something would have to change as Sasuke was determined to pass these exams and get himself a stronger teacher.

* * *

"Hey Naruto," Kishi said as the smoke from the summoning dissipated around him."What'd you summon me for?"

"Hey Kishi," Naruto said,, "When we faced off against those sand guys I realized that I don't have any long range attacks. I decided to start learning some and thought you'd like to train with me."

"Sure." Kishi said.

Naruto smiled at that before putting his fingers in a T shape. With a poof of smoke three Kage Bunshin appeared and looked to Naruto for instructions.

"I want you guys to go off to the side and practice that shield thing I did when I fought Haku. I want to at least be able to move while using it."

The three clones nodded before jogging of to a far away section of the clearing.

With the clones gone, Naruto bit his thumb and once more used the summoning jutsu. Kakashi had said that he wouldn't be able to teach Naruto any long range techniques as he was used to working up close and personal. Not knowing anyone else he could go to to learn long range techniques from, Naruto turned to his only other option.

Naruto slammed his palm on the ground and stood back to watch as the smoke cleared to reveal his latest sensei.

"Hey Gamakaze."

* * *

**AN: Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Like I said up above, The next chapter/chapters will be out on Sunday.**

**If you want to read more of my work then go check out my other story Midday.**


	8. Bring the ChEx MEx

**Disclaimer: Ch 1**

**I apologize for being 2 days late with this update, but I was unprepared for how focused my ADD medication would make me in regards to studies and was hard pressed to fit in some time to write this chapter.**

**Before you read, a couple things: **

**First, something that should have been answered last chapter that I forgot to address: Yaoi.**

**Everyone who wanted it, I'm sorry**

**Everyone who didn't, relax**

**I canNOT write yaoi. The yaoi moment in the 6th chapter was influenced by me having a couple friends who are gay and was purely for comedic purposes; my Ex-Gf always seemed amused at how unsettled I was when one of her gay friends hit on me so I decided to share the joy with you. Also because I really can't see a male-Haku as being anything but Bi at the very least.**

**As far as the pairing for Naruto goes, one of the few things that Kishimoto did consistently correct was keeping romance from interfering with the true nature the manga. Similarly, this story isn't focused on romance and won't have an identifiable pairing for Naruto till much later on. It will be Naruto x Female though.**

**On another note:**

**I had over 50 follows for the last chapter alone and feel extremely honored for all support. **

**I STILL NEED A BETA. IF YOU APPLY THEN YOU GET TO READ CHAPTERS A DAY EARLY.**

**RRFSC**

* * *

Jiraya stilled his breath as he crouched down behind a bush at the edge of the clearing: his eyes trained on the single figure sitting lackadaisically on the porch of a small hovel.

The Toad Sage was currently deep in Land of Rice fields, attempting to gain information about the recently declared Sound Village. After spending some time snooping around the daimyo's mansion, Jiraiya gotten lucky and followed a messenger-nin back to the entrance of Sound. Unfortunately, it turned out that Sound kept itself hidden by keeping the entirety the Hidden Village underground; with a single visible entrance, Jiraiya knew he wouldn't be able to get through unnoticed as it was well manned and there was no civilian traffic for the white haired man to blend in with.

Jiraiya had attempted to enter the Village via an Earth Jutsu but had been stymied when he realized the the tunnels below were lined with seals that he couldn't quietly dismantle without being on the other side. Following alongside the tunnels, looking for gaps in the sealing, Jiraiya had found a tunnel branching away from the village. Following the tunnel for a few miles, he had eventually found the apparent back door to the village and was now staking it out.

Using low levels of Senjutsu, Jiraiya boosted his sensing range and was able to get a feel for the opposition: there were a total of three guards that he would need to get past. The first was the rather inattentive man on the porch with the other two being a similarly bored pair within the house.

Smiling at how easy this would be, Jiraiya quickly got to work.

The man sitting by the porch was able to see the blur that jumped out the bushes at the edge of the clearing, but he wasn't able to make a single sound before a thin needle slipped between the space in his spine where it connected to his skull. Nearly instantly, the guard felt himself go numb and become unable to control his limbs or vocal cords.

Jiraiya smiled at the effectiveness of the drug he had coated the specially designed senbon with. Tsunade might remain unwilling to talk to him cordially, but Shizune was always willing to help her master's teammate.

As Jiraiya turned from the slumped ninja, he tried to decide how to take care of the other two guards that remained oblivious within the hovel.

Deciding that discretion was the best choice of action, Jiraiya just a slight amount of lightning chakra to shock the first guard's vocal cords into the producing what could be construed as a shout of surprise. Jiraiya stood back and watched as the pair of men within lept out through doorway. Shaking his head at how easy they had made this for him, Jiraiya quickly got behind the pair and knocked them out with a chop to the neck each.

It would be foolish to aggravate a new village before he even knew its military strength, so Jiraiya quickly used one of the few techniques he had managed to wrangle out of the Yamanaka and wiped the memories of the last few hours from the trio while setting them up with a pile of empty sake bottles and entering the hovel.

Once he was inside, Jiraiya could easily see the 'hidden" exit and made his way down it. For a few minutes, Jiraiya sprinted down the tunnel in darkness: using what remained of the slight senjutsu chakra he had originally prepared to help guide him. Soon enough though, Jiraiya arrived at wide passage where the tunnel had originally branched off from the village just as the last of his senjutsu faded away. He was surprised to see that it was unmanned and thanked his luck as he transformed himself into looking like an unremarkable man wearing the same style of clothing as the guards he had knocked out.

Suppressing his chakra signature to the level of an average chunnin, Jiraiya began to explore.

'Odd,' Jiraiya thought 15 minutes later as he passed by a somewhat short man waddling down the corridor with a stack of papers.'That was only the third person I've seen so far. Even if its a new Hidden Village, there should be more people.'

Seeing a ninja turn the corner ahead of him, Jiraiya upped his pace and began to trail the man. They turned a few corners before making their way through a downward sloping corridor. Eventually, they reached the end of the in behind the man, Jiraiya looked around to see that he was in an absolutely enormous cavern that was filled with thousands of Shinobi.

'So this is where they all were,' Jiraiya mused, staying in the shadows as he observed the large group. ' but why-'

Jiraiya's thoughts screeched to a halt as he recognized the maneuvers the veritable army was practicing. They were slightly different than the ones JIraiya knew, but the couple thousand shinobi were definitely practicing invasion maneuvers. There was only one reason for a Hidden Village to have what looked like all its shinobi practicing for an invasion during a time of peace and, as Jiraiya began to understand, he grit his teeth in anger.

Knowing that it was even more crucial than ever to find information about Sound, Jiraiya slipped back into the tunnels and began to search in earnest. It took a while, but Jiraiya eventually made his way to what looked like a throne room. It wasn't very ornate, but there was a raised dais and plenty of room: indicating that this was where the village leader met with his shinobi.

Looking around of a hidden entrance, Jiraiya snorted as he remembered that the leader of the Hidden Sound apparently called himself the Otokage. There were only five true kage and, even though they wouldn't feel any true backlash from it, it was impudent of this village to insinuate that they were on the same level of the Great Five.

Fingers hovering lightly over the walls as he traced along the back walls, Jiraiya began his search before stopping as he felt the slight vestiges of chakra. As a Fuuinjutsu Master, Jiraiya was able to quickly reveal and deactivate the hidden seal, causing a section of wall to drop away and reveal the tunnel that lay behind it. Jiraiya snuck down the hallway before it opened up into a decently sized room filled with rows large tanks but otherwise empty. Jiraya ignored the familiarity that the empty tanks provoked before realizing that one of them was still full. Walking over to it, Jiraiya found himself experiencing an extreme case of deja-vu as he observed the young girl floating in the green liquid: the electronic readout at the side of the tank indicating that she had passed on.

Beginning to have an inkling of just who ran this village, Jiraiya once more entered a diluted form of the sage mode and tried to find another sealing array that would lead to the next room. He wasn't able to find another hidden door, but he did find a smallish seal set four feet up a wall. This seal was a good bit harder for Jiraiya to undo, but he eventually succeeded in safely deactivating it.

As a rectangular section of the wall slid away to reveal a decent sized cubby hole Jiraiya grit his teeth in anger. Still in his diluted Sage Mode, It was impossible for him to mistake the chakra signature that lingered within the small storage space.

Orochimaru.

Looking within for any clues, Jiraiya found it empty except for a shriveled hand. Jiraiya wrinkled his nose as he realized that the severed appendage was, almost imperceptibly, emanating a cold, corrupt version of Nature energy and was about to reflexively torch it before stopping as he saw that there was a ring on the pinky of the closer, Jiraiya observed the ring and noted that it was colored a pale green and embossed with the kanji for "sky" where a gemstone should have been.

Jiraiya reached into his vest and unsealed a pair of tweezers. Delicately, Jiraiya used the tweezers to pull the ring off of the hand. As the ring slipped off the finger, Jiraiya realized the corrupt Nature Energy he had been feeling had been coming from the ring and not the hand. Repulsed by the feel of the energy it was emitting, Jiraiya quickly pulled out a scroll and sealed the ring into it, channeling chakra through the tweezers so as to avoid touching the ring directly. Stowing the scroll into a seal on the inside of his vest, Jiraiya didn't bother spending time to close the storage space. He quickly made his way back into the main chamber and to a sealing tag that was stuck on one of the walls. Ripping it off, Jiraiya ran through a set of seals and sank through the wall, now that he was no longer blocked from doing so by the tag he had just pulled off.

He didn't bother trying to search for more information, knowing just how thorough Orochimaru was and that it was highly unlikely for the snake faced bastard to have written his plans down.

Jiraiya quickly reached the surface and began to run for Konoha. He was more useful in the village than he would be outside it for the foreseeable future.

* * *

Yugito Nii cleaned her nails as she walked through the hallway, headed for the Raikage's office. She'd been summoned by one of the communication-nin and was calmly making her way there.

Yugito's face was slightly scrunched in concentration as she continued to try to pick at the slight bit of dried blood that was stuck beneath one of her nails. Had anyone from another village seen her, they might have been tempted to call her a fangirl: based on how much care was visible in her nails. They would have been mistaken and quickly mangled. Yugito was a consummate professional: experienced in the rigors of being a frontline shinobi, and dedicated to keeping Kumo safe; she just had a little bit of a complex over her nails. No one truly knew the reason for it, but most just agreed that it was an influence of the two-tailed cat that was sealed within her and then hid in fear whenever someone chipped one.

Eventually, getting out the last of the blood, the Kumo jonin smiled slightly before once more clearing her face of expression and opening the door to the Raikage's office.

Looking up from reading mission reports, the musclebound man sitting behind the only desk in the room saw Yugito standing in the doorway.

"You needed me Raikage-sama?", Yugito asked as she watched her kage, Ei (A), continue to pump a barbell in his right hand while closing the mission reports with his left.

"Yes," Ei nodded before cutting to the chase."you are to take your team to Konohagakure and have them participate in the Chunnin Exams that will be held there in four days time."

Yugito's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She had been prepared for the brusque manner of the Yondaime Raikage but this completely threw her off balance. Years ago, when she had believed herself to be a mere tool of Kumo, she would have simply followed the orders. Then she had met Bee: the other "tool" of Kumo.

"On such short notice?", she asked, internally remarking that her interactions with the Eight-tails' Jinchuriki had definitely changed her.

"Yes," Ei said, continuing to pump his barbell as he looked out the window towards where Konoha lay. "I've already had the paperwork processed and gotten you and your team clearance to quickly pass through the borders."

"But I thought we had already declined?" the Jinchuuriki questioned.

"Officially," Ei gruffly explained," we are rescinding our previous statement because we have learned that the clan heirs of many of Konoha's strongest clans will also be a part of the exam and wish to pit some of our best gennin against them."

"And unofficially?", Yugito asked, having picked up on Ei's wording..

For a few seconds the room remained still save for the methodically moving right arm of Raikage. Yugito thought that she was going to be denied that information and had decided to leave and get her team on the road to Konoha. Before she could speak up and ask permission to exit, she stopped herself as Ei reached out with his left hand and pumped some chakra into a small seal on the edge of his desk. A moment later, the seal glowed blue before thin lines shot out from it and connected to seals scattered along the walls, door, and windows before they all faded away.

"Unofficially," he started, this time his voice carrying none of the impatience it usually did, "we have received information that an Uzumaki remains in Konoha."

* * *

Sasuke's teeth ground against each other as yet another team passed by him and entered the Academy. Next to him, Sakura was in a similar state of annoyance:not even in the mood to "discretely" oogle Sasuke.

The pair of rookies were currently waiting outside the entrance of the Academy for the third genin of Team Seven to show up. It was currently 9:30 on the day of the Chunin Exams; while they weren't necessarily late, the exam was to start in 30 minutes and they had originally planned to be waiting in the designated room 301 by 8 so that they could have plenty of time to scope out the competition.

Sasuke watched the clock in the reception area of the Academy as it slowly kept ticking until it was 9:40. Turning back to the pathway leading up to the building, he was seconds away from deciding to simply go to Naruto's apartment and drag him out when he observed that a mop of blond hair was finally making it's way towards him.

Watching the whiskered boy come to a stop before his teammates, Sasuke got ready to watch Sakura take out her anger on the source of their mutual frustration until they both noticed that Naruto had his head hung low and was oddly quiet.

Concerned, Sakura bent down and looked at her teammate's face to see that his eyes were closed and had bags beneath them. She was about to tell Naruto to open his eyes before she was startled by a loud buzzing. Sakura straightened up and looked around to try to figure out where the sound was coming from. Another buzz a few seconds later clued her in to it's source. Incredulous, Sakura realized that her teammate was literally asleep on his feet.

Sasuke, for his part, was equally surprised at seeing his normally hyperactive teammate in such a condition but pushed the shock to the side as they were running out of time.

"Dobe, wake up." Sasuke commanded as he stepped forward and tried to wake Naruto up by shaking him.

Without a hint of warning, Naruto's arm swung at Sasuke and the raven haired boy was nearly hit: managing to get out of the way of the backhand just in time thanks to his above average reflexes. Missing it's target, Naruto's hand continued its swing heading for one of the pillars that held up the overhang in front of the Academy entrance.

Sasuke subconsciously prepared himself for his teammate to start yelling in pain as Naruto's hand got close to the cement structure. Instead, Sasuke felt a familiar pulse of chakra just as the blonde's loose fist made contact with the pillar.

Sasuke clenched his fist as he brought his arm up to his face so as to protect himself from the chips of cement that were now headed for him. Once he felt that the impromptu stone shower had passed, he brought his arm back down to see the shallow indent that Naruto had made in the pillar.

'Dammit,' Sasuke thought furiously,''that would have hurt.'

Stepping forward to end the fight that he thought Naruto wanted to start, Sasuke's jaw mentally dropped upon seeing that Naruto was still sleeping.

"Did Naruto just reflexively dent a cement pillar?" Sakura asked from behind him as she noticed the same thing.

Sasuke merely nodded in response.

"Great," fumed Sakura, stomping her feet in frustration, " now how do we get to the exam room in time?"

Before he could come up with an answer of his own, Sasuke realized that Kakashi was crouched on the overhang above them and merely pointed at the jonin.

"Sensei!", Sakura said in surprise.

"Yo," Kakashi said, the amusement obvious in his tone." It seems like you have a bit of a problem."

"Can you help us?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm. a Jonin sensei really isn't supposed to interfere in the Exam." Kakashi replied.

Clasping her hands, Sakura tried to reinforce the request with what her father liked to call her "Puppy Eyes" kinjutsu.

Kakashi pretended to muse over the request for a few seconds before giving his answer. "Say please and I'll help my cute little genin one last time before the exam begins"

"Please?", Sakura said nearly instantly, wanting to get to the room as soon as possible.

When no second "please" came for her Uchiha teammate, she looked over to see that he looked slightly pained.

It wasn't so much that Sasuke was too arrogant to say please to a man like Kakashi, but more so that he was annoyed that the first time he'd be using the word in over 5 years would be for something as trivial as asking his sensei to wake up his teammate. Before he could grunt a negative to his sensei, he saw that the clock inside the reception area now read 9:50. Realizing that time was running out, he forced the word through his lips. "Please."

Despite the tone of response, Kakashi apparently decided that it was acceptable. As the two genin watched, their sensei ran through a set of three hand signs that were followed by Kakashi spitting a glob of water at Naruto.

Instead of yelling in surprise and jumping around comically from the cold water like he had a week ago, Naruto merely raised his drenched head: eyes now half open,holding none of their usual impatient energy.

"Oh hi sensei,' the usually exuberant boy spoke sluggishly before turning to his teammates. "What are you guys waiting for lets get to the room."

Kakashi watched as the boy walked through the entrance to the Academy, head once more hanging in exhaustion as he shambled through the reception. Not even having to look back, the jonin reached out with his left hand and caught the cuff of Sasuke's shirt before he could dash past and attack his teammate.

"Now, now," Kakashi admonished the second oldest of his genin team, " the first phase of the Chunin Exams requires you to be in teams of three. If you go and put our little sleepyhead in the hospital then you'll have failed the exams before they even begin."

The raven-haired boy just huffed in irritation before shrugging of Kakashi's hold and walking into the building at a brisk pace so as to catch up to Naruto.

As Kakashi watched Sakura jog to catch up to the other two boys, he thoughtfully rubbed the tip of this left pointer finger: he almost hadn't caught the cuff of Sasuke's shirt.

"You two really like to keep me on my toes don't you?" the one eyed jonin muttered to no one in particular before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

Team Seven walked down the hallway, nearing their destination; Sasuke was in front while Sakura trailed behind to make sure that the near asleep Naruto didn't wander off. The end of the corridor was packed with genin teams from various villages: milling about as a pair of older genin stood in front of a doorway.

Sasuke stepped forward as he and his teammates also reached the end of the corridor: intending to expose the genjutsu that he had identified based on the slight lighting inconsistencies around the sign of the door number.

The two chunin disguised as genin had noticed when Sasuke stepped forward. Based on the confidence reflected in his body language and the way he had looked at the fake room number, they could easy tell that he had figured out the genjutsu and was about to call them out on it. Had he come 25 minutes ago, they would have let the boy put a target on himself by revealing the trick. Now though, there were only 5 minutes until the Official start time for the exam: It was like sending lambs to the slaughter to allow any teams that still hadn't figured out the genjutsu to continue on and likely get themselves killed in the Second Phase if they somehow made their way past the First. Wanting to save some lives, even if they were from other Hidden Villages, one of the chunin prepared to dash forward and engage Sasuke before the Uchiha could speak up.

Before either party could initiate their decided course of action, they were prematurely halted as Naruto simply walked between them and towards the stairs.

Looking between the pair older genin and Naruto, as he obliviously trudged up a set of stairs, Sasuke eventually decided that it simply wasn't worth it and followed his blond teammate up the stairs with Sakura still taking the rear.

On his part, Naruto hadn't even registered the genjutsu nor the false genin that was about to attack his teammate. Naruto had simply stumbled on in autopilot as his exhausted body simply followed the path to room 301 it had once trudged during Naruto's first year at the academy.

As the trio finally reached room 301, they entered to find that it was packed a huge number of genin: some sitting at the desks while others milled about at the front of the auditorium style classroom.

Seeing teams 8 and 10 talking to some unknown genin with glasses, Sakura grabbed Naruto and led him over to join their peers as Sasuke followed behind her.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino squealed as she caught sight of her crush, though it was oddly strained as if she was trying to keep quiet.

"What's wrong with Naruto?", Kiba asked as he too caught sight of the final rookie genin team.

"He's really tired for some reason," Sakura replied as she held on to the shoulder of Naruto's orange tracksuit to keep him from wandering away.

"Is he sleeping?" Kiba asked incredulously as the blonde started to snore next to Sakura..

"Yeah," Sakura groaned as she realized that her teammate had once more fallen asleep while standing. "Just don't try to wake him up."

"Why not?" Choji asked as he munched on bag of chips.

"Oh hi Sakura," Ino interrupted with a fake smile before Sakura could respond, " I couldn't see you there with your enormous forehead in the way."

"All that rolling around in the mud must be affecting your eyesight Ino-buto." Sakura growled back, causing the other girl's eye to start twitching in anger.

"That's enough you two," drawled Shikamaru as he stepped between the troublesome girls before either of the two preteens could start a catfight: physical or verbal. "we've already drawn enough attention to ourselves. Kabuto's been kind enough to share his info so let's listen up."

"Thank you," the silver haired boy said, adjusting his glasses. "Like I was telling you, I'm not that great of a front line fighter so, over the past few months, I've collected an extensive amount of information about the participating genin from each of the various villages.I have detailed summary for all of them except the team from Kumo sitting in the corner as they registered extremely late and I didn't have time really get all that much on them."

The three teams of genin, sans Naruto, turned look at Kumo-nin Kabuto pointed out before choosing to ignore them for now as they seemed engrossed in a silent but apparently heated discussion.

"Overall," Kabuto continued as the younger kids turned back to him, "the biggest known threats are the team from Suna, due to their track record of coming back from each of their missions without a scratch, and the Kumo team as the Raikage was apparently confident enough in them to send them on their own. Conversely, the teams from Kusa and Oto are unlikely to be too big of a problem as they come from small and, in the case of Oto, very new hidden Villages."

A clatter rang out from the far side of the room as Kabuto voiced his low opinion of Oto. Looking to see what it was, they were able to see that one of the Oto-nin had taken offense and had knocked over his chair as he sprang towards the insulter. Kabuto's eye's widened at the incoming retaliation and prepared to dodge out of the way.

Since the moment that the chair had fallen over, every single genin had their eyes locked on the imminent conflict. To the trained ninja, time seemed to slow down as the bandaged Oto genin neared his target. Five feet away from Kabuto, the entire room widened their eyes as a new variable entered the equation.

During Kabuto's speech about the various teams, Naruto momentarily woken up and, seeing that there were chair and desks, slipped out of his jacket so he could head for them, falling asleep only a quarter second later while his body continued forward to it's programmed destination.

Over 100 genin watched as Naruto's path put him directly between Kabuto and the Oto-nin.

Cursing at the boy for getting in the way, the Oto-nin swung past Naruto's head knowing that he didn't need to make contact with Kabuto for his attack to work.

Kabuto and the rest were confused at the Oto-nin's actions but, before even Kabuto could react to his new unexpected nausea and the surprise of having the lenses in his glasses crack, everyone's attention was instead drawn to a different event.

The melody gauntlet, wielded by the Oto-nin known as Dosu, utilized extremely high pitched sound to disorientate targets. The frequencies used meant that even though they were affected by it, normal ninja couldn't hear the noise it generated.

Naruto was far from normal.

When the gauntlet activated inches from Naruto's sensitive ears, that were being subconsciously boosted with chakra, he was violently woken up and once more reflexively swung his arm: This time it connected.

Eyes wide in surprise, Dosu felt the air be forced out of his lungs as he was sent flying into the ceiling, his upper back smashing against it, before gravity once more asserted its control and sent him crashing to the floor before he could brace himself.

The room was silent: everyone staring at a confused Naruto who was frantically looking around and trying to figure out just what the hell was going on.

"That's why," Sakura said softly, finally replying to Choji's earlier question as he stood frozen with a chip hovering before his open mouth.

Bruised but otherwise okay, Dosu snapped out of shock and was about to attack Naruto when smoke began to billow from the very front of the room and then dissipated just as quickly to reveal a bunch of ninja wearing Konoha flack jackets as they stood behind a scarred man in a black trenchcoat.

"ALLRIGHT MAGOTS," the man in front boomed, grabbing the attention of the few who were watching Kabuto throw up in the corner. "My name is Ibiki. I don't know what horrible things you've done in your life to mess up your karma so badly and honestly dont give a damn: I will be your proctor."

* * *

"What!," Sakura screeched along with many of her fellow genin.

"You pass," repeated Ibiki. "The final question wasn't really a question but more of a test in itself. Those of you who pass the next two phases of the exam will become chunin. As chunin, it will be your job to lead teams of genin or participate in crucial missions: missions which we can't have you running away from just because you're scared of injury or death. Only those of you who had the guts to face a life altering situation deserved to pass. the final portion of the First Phase"

Before anyone could speak further, the windows shattered and a blur shot through them. Bringing down their arms from covering their faces, the genin saw that the source of the commotion was now standing at the front of the room: wearing a beige trenchcoat and having put up a black banner."

"Alright genin, this is no time to-" the lady began to shout before having to dodge the kunai that passed through where her head had been and then tore through her banner."

Looking to the back of the room, everyone could see that it's source was obviously the angry genin standing up from his seat.

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled, annoyed at having been woken up." Just be quiet and let me sleep!"

* * *

**AN :**

**Poor Naruto just wants some shut eye.**

**For those of you who didn't get my terrible pun:**

**Chex mix = ChEx MEx = Ch**unin **Ex**ams : **M**ental **Ex**amination

**Threefold Path is evolving on it's own:**

**Originally, the first section of this chapter wasn't a part of my plans until I had one of my reviewers state that it would be cool to see Jiraiya's viewpoint when he infiltrated Oto. Thank you ****Kronos96** **for the idea. After adding it in, it began to take on a life of its own and added another unplanned facet to the story.**

**Another unplanned part was the section in the last chapter (Ch 7) involving the reveal of the Uzumaki clan. As you can see, it too changed the story as I hadn't originally planned to have Kumo be in the Exams.**

**For my readers of ****Midday****:**

**I apologize, but I probably won't be releasing a new chapter till next Sunday. I know what needs to happen in Ch 4 (and the next 6 chapters after it) but I am currently stuck at around 2,000 words as character dialogue refuses to cooperate. If I end up breaking through early enough in the week, then I'll try to get two chapters up instead of one for next Sunday.**

**To the rest of my readers:**

**GO READ THE CHAPTERS OF MIDDAY THAT I HAVE ALREADY POSTED!.**

**A special thanks to those who left a review and an EXTRA SPECIAL THANK YOU to**

**those who took the time to ask me questions. I am pretty sure I responded to all of them and really enjoyed the discussions we shared. **

**Brownie points to anyone who can figure out the TV show reference I made.**

**WOAF**


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